Robin Small wandered wide in avoidance of all things hard to touch .
Personal footnote: This Robin knows the pain borne from intimacy, getting close – and loss. He also knows how difficult it can be to connect with things deep within himself. But I get the feeling he might be contemplating step into it, stepping out and taking some risks. That’s heroic.
Find him in ‘Tales of Robin Small’ book and postcard collection in the Shop.
(Image by Maurice Sendak who wrote and illustrated the book, ‘Where the Wild Things Are’.)
The Black Dog Blog (now 12 years on) contains some 500 posts, so thought I’d do some rewinding on particular topics. Here’s to …. Being enough and the rejection of all things ‘superfied’ …
Army of Ink – Enough. If I was Made of Chocolate. Think You Want. Wisdoms of Rose – Wish Upon Yourself. Drawing A Line. Army of Ink – Blow The Man Down. With Integrity. Robin Small. For Rubbish Self Esteem. Free Yourself/Birdman Movie. Bob Dylan on Destiny.
My Place .
Truth is my sanctuary. A place I enter by trusting there is another place I can be.
It’s slow. A little reclusive.
Painful and confronting because I’m keeping company with emotions I’ve spent my life trying to escape.
Vulnerable, because I’m sitting in my insecurities. Pursuing what I deeply care about.
Disturbing, because life, through the eyes of truth, reveals both the beauty and the beast of it.
Overwhelming, due to the acceptance of personal responsibility to create a life that soothes the pain of truth – nurtures new growth.
Lonely, from conceding that ultimately it is self-reliance that will create and secure my destiny.
Sad, from accepting my past is over.
Compassionate, from the realisation that I cannot effortlessly accept myself. And acknowledging the degree of consciousness it’s going to take to be content with who I am.
Liberated, because the time has come to move – and from having the freedom to explore what awaits.
A stillness, from reaching a place where I feel more comfortable being different than fitting in. Where I feel a calm but intensely emotional sense of coming home.
Footnote:
Written pre-2006. Showed a friend this poem many years ago. She said she was sorry this was how I felt and hoped one day I’d find peace and happiness. For me, the poem wasn’t a downer – more a revelation. Liberating. When you’ve lived a life hiding and surpressing emotion and truth it’s such a breakthrough when you sit with it, allow yourself to ‘feel’ again, and emerge in a better, stronger place. I’m not sure you find real peace and joy by constantly hanging out with happiness. But when you break the constraints of keeping secrets and pretending to be okay – that’s when the light comes on.
See previous posts/poems on this theme. The Crossing. Illuminate the Darkness. Dancer and The Following Dark. Hold On (being there for someone who is feeling intensely). Being a Heroic Friend. The New Brave. Boy Oh Boy. Robin Small is comfortable being vulnerable and wearing his hurts. This Rose is curious about feelings. This Army of Ink is protesting about smiley faces. The Black Dog Story. Pass it on …
Poem from book, ‘In My Room’. Artwork Ash Browne. Design Harley Manifold.
‘Robin Small wandered wide in avoidance of all things hard to touch.’
Artist, Shaun Tan said about drawing: “While there is no set meaning in any of these drawings, there is an invitation to seek one (for myself as much as any other audience). A scene or a character seems to look back from the page and ask, ‘What do you make of this?’ Each sketch suggests its own ‘untold story’.” Here’s some recent personally relevant meaning that emerged around this particular guy….
The initial thread of Robin’s story ‘avoidance of all things hard to touch’, seems to elude to his trouble with intimacy. Robin’s arrows are perhaps symbolic of his painful experience of relationships and of interacting with others? Each arrow representing each jab of pain he has felt so deeply—a backpack of hurts. His heavy cloak and oversize ‘buttoning up’ an armor against further and future hurt. But I don’t think Robin has shut down or closed off.
The fact that he carries no bow with which to fire or fight back or defend himself is hopeful. His delicate nature and presence seems to suggest his openness to attempt to re-engage in ‘things hard to touch’. Allow himself to trust and to feel and to experience intimacy once more.
Robin’s softness seems to suggest that re-engaging in relationships and life, (and with his feelings), does not require him to be tougher and stronger – but to be more comfortable in his vulnerability. More accepting of a full range of feelings and emotional experiences. Wearing his backpack of pain more openly, more unashamedly, with those he can trust – or those worth taking the risk to connect with.
Original arrival here. And book and card collection here. View all Robin Smalls here.
Art: The life of a Super hero. Andreas Englund says;
” I wanted to let people get to know the man behind the mask and tell his story uncensored. My superhero is far from perfect but that doesn’t mean he is isn’t good. He’s just human. Perfect people is just boring and predictable and who wants that?”
Personal footnote: Been exploring the Super Hero notion for some time now and this piece reflects nicely my conclusion ….. keep child like fantastical notions of being a Super Hero, a Super anything in its small place. Being heroic in your own life is one of the best contributions you can make to the world – and to your ‘self’. See Robin Small – he reflects this.
