"If night falls
use stars for streetlights."
"If you have butterflies in your stomach
ask them into your heart."
"If there is no happy ending
make one out of cookie dough."
-Cooper Edens, If You're Afraid of the Dark Remember the Night Rainbow
Cooper Edens wrote and illustrated a lovely little picture book filled with life wisdom that is beautifully simple and wonderfully absurd. A page at a time, he addresses common situations and metaphors in our daily lives and presents simple solutions twisted on their heads. The lines and their accompanying illustrations are colorful, whimsical, imaginative, and fun.
My imitation:
If you have writer's block
redraw the lines to make it a cylinder.
...which would be accompanied by a cute illustration of writer a with an over-sized pencil erasing the edges of a cube.
Above all, I think that Cooper is attempting to get his reader to see potentially negative situations in a positive light. No matter what the world throws at you, you can always choose to make the best of it. Life is too short and too silly to take so seriously. Instead of brooding on our troubles, isn't our time better spent making the best out of a situation through ingenuity, imagination, and optimism?
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