Margaret

With all the disturbing and upsetting news out of Wisconsin, where police are shooting fathers in front of their children but letting juvenile delinquent murderers go home carrying their AK47s and put themselves to bed, it's not surprising that I fastened upon a quote from the marvelous Margaret Mead as a lifeline today, nor that it inspired me to make art out of it. The entire quote reads:

Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.
But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thigh bone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink, or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.
A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. "Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts," Mead said.

For some reason, although I am sure that Margaret was at a more venerable age when she revealed this truth, whoever sought it out paired it with a picture of Mead in her extreme youth. She's probably older than she looks in the picture, but she has such a homely, wholesome verging on girlish expression that I couldn't resist commemorating her in that aspect. (She also has some rather astonishing Frieda-esque eyebrows!) I didn't catch the likeness as well as I would have liked—her eyes are longer, and set wider in her face, which is slightly squarer than this—but making a colorful attempt to go with her quote was enough for today.

We are at our most civilized when we help others through their difficulties. Let us remember the sentiment as this year proceeds.

Pencil, Daler Rowney inks, watercolor, Uniball pen, gel pens, white gouache, on 140-lb. Strathmore watercolor paper, about 7x10.