Soundbites

“I need to balance time for drawing with dealing with the business side of things. Some weeks I do nothing artistic at all,” he notes. Something that really helps small companies like Inherit the Mirth today is the Internet — it’s an inexpensive way to reach millions of customers. But it’s also a bane; copies of his cartoons float without attribution on the Web.

“There’s nothing I can do about it,” he says. “All I can do is encourage people who get them in an e-mail to tell the senders about my website. Maybe they’ll go there and buy them.”

In addition to his cartoons, Black has also published two children’s books and a collection of cartoons called What’s That Funny Look on Your Faith? (Zondervan) He also produces youth curriculum, animated e-cards and is exploring applications for phones. “The jury is still out about whether I can make a long-term go of this, or whether it will end up being just a hobby. But I believe there is a huge audience for Christian humor. I think God wants me to be in this, to use me to help show a side of who He is.”

The business side of being funny isn’t always a laughing matter.

John Longhurst directs media relations and marketing for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Winnipeg.

More information about Cuyler Black and his products can be found at inheritthemirth.com

Sandy bottom

A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, and such a society is a house built on sand. — Dorothy Sayers

Shrinking leisure

In the 1960s, in the heyday of belief in “progress” through work and technological advancement, it was once suggested to a U.S. Senate hearing that by 1985 people could be working just 22-27 hours a week, and many would be able to retire at 38! These calculations would be laughable if they weren’t made in earnest, reflecting an earnest and naive belief in the human capacity to remake the world, the workplace, and ourselves. Alas, a survey in 1990 showed that between 1973 and 1990 the actual amount of leisure enjoyed by the average American worker shrunk by 37 percent, with the average work week rising from 41 to 47 hours a week. — Ben Witherington III in Work: A Kingdom Perspective on Labor

Letters

Jesus and panhandlers

While the March/April 2011 issue of The Marketplace was quite good, the piece on panhandlers provoked.

Sure, it’s easy to agree with Sider that we should work for “sweeping reflection and change.” While we are doing all of this reflecting, holding many conferences on the poor and structural change, writing project proposals for sustainable programs for the poor, and wringing our hands during the boom and bust cycles, those panhandlers as well as the invisible poor remain with us, as we read that there are now over 24 million millionaires in the world.

I used to have queasy feelings about beggars staring at me while the traffic light stayed interminably red. If I gave some change, what would he/she do with it? Buy drugs or alcohol or a bit of food, or take it home to his/her mansion? Then the light would turn green and I would escape.

Now I often roll down the window, looking the panhandler in the eye, seeking signs of his or her dignity and worth, respectfully handing him/her a couple of bucks, maybe some food, hoping it will do the person some good, hoping I will feel rotten inside because I have avoided his/her squalid life condition through hard work and luck. My wife and I also give to our church, and to local and international groups (including MEDA) that work for and with the poor.

Having spent much of my life working for church and secular non-profit organizations, I have no expectations of joining the 24 million millionaire club. I respect those who have ethically succeeded to accrue more wealth than I have, and who generously donate much of it away.

Just think again about that next panhandler you see, and about how Jesus would respond. — Richard MacBride, Waterloo, Ontario