If you surf the internet half as religiously as us, you must have stumbled upon Zen Pencils by now. It is a webcomic run by Australian/Vietnamese artist Gavin Aung Than, where he takes inspirational quotes from famous books, people, or sayings, and translate them into comics.
Zen Pencils is hugely popular, having given life to the immortal words of great people as historically diverse as Marcus Aurelius to Banksy to Carl Sagan to my personal hero, George Carlin. Every comic tells an inspiring story, and they are all without a doubt, uplifting and morale boosting.
This time round, Than has taken the words of late Indian president and scientist A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and given it his own touch. The quote, taken from the “missile man’s” book Wings of Fire reads thus:[blockquote type=”left”]A characteristic feature of this social authoritarianism is its insidious ability to addict people to the endless pursuit of external rewards, wealth, prestige, position, promotion, approval of one’ s lifestyle by others, ceremonial honours, and status symbols of all kinds.
To successfully pursue these goals, they have to learn elaborate rules of etiquette and familiarize themselves with customs, traditions, protocols and so on. The youth of today must unlearn this self-defeating way of life.Are you aware of your inner signals? Do you trust them? Have you taken control over your life into your own hands?
Life is a difficult game. You can win only by retaining your birthright to be a person. And to retain this right, you will have to be willing to take the social or external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done.[/blockquote]
It is without a doubt, beautiful and life-affirming quote in its own right, but the illustration of Zen Pencils only serve to make the message ring home clearer. Click here for the full comic and many more.
Image: ZenPencils
