Death, Dying and the Eternal Soul

 

Yesterday one of my two best friends in the world died of prostate cancer.  Life sucks and then you die.  It's probably worse for those left behind, who have to live with grief, the most painful mental experience there is.

My Pomeranian dog Kodi died over a year ago, on August 4, 2025.  I still grieve for him, though the pain has faded somewhat.  I can't stand to go into the backyard, as lovely as it is, because it reminds me so much of him.  However, I can stand it if I have cigars and I am fresh out.  I will order some more by tomorrow.

So what's this about an eternal soul?  It is said to exist for both humans and animals. like cats and dogs.  It is, they say, the conscious part of a person or animal that does not die with the body, but accedes to a heavenly realm, an afterlife.  Most, if not all Near Death Experience (NDE) researchers say this is true.  These researchers are not werido hippies, they are usually MD's, Medical Doctors.and scientists. They tell of patients who have had near death experiences and were reunited with their beloved animals in the afterlife, cats, dogs, horses and others.

There are many who deny life after death.  I used to argue with my cousin who is an MD Psychiatrist in Dallas   He told me that dead people were just as dead as "last night's baked beans or last year's moths."  I didn't know about NDEs at that point, but my cousin has softened his position since then, maybe because he is 84 and hoping for soul survival himself.

San Francisco Forty-Niners Team Logo

 I duplicated this team logo for the San Francisco Forty-Niners, using Adobe Illustrator. Why?

Because I am a fan and because of the challenge of doing it.

The oval shapes wee easy to make but the SF letters were more difficult.  They are not part of a fonts set, they were created and drawn by an artist.  Copying them was hard.

Monarch Butterfly Graphic

A Monarch Butterfly, Created in Adobe Illustrator

911 Terrorist Attack on America: 25 Years Ago Today

It was 25 years ago today that Muslim fanatics destroyed major buildings in New York City.  They hijacked commercial passenger airplanes and flew them into the two buildings known as the Twin Towers, trapping many people inside as the fires burned.  

The Falling Man

Many jumped to their deaths from high windows, rather than burn to death.  The fires weakened the structures of the buildings, causing them to eventually collapse into rubble.  The number of dead was 2,977.

Ever since then I have hated Islam and view it as the enemy of civilization and humanity.

Charlie Kirk

Another sad remembrance this week is that of Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated a year ago on September 10, 2025.  He was shot by a sniper atop a building at a university where he was speaking to the students.

I Lied. Sideview of Peanuts Characters

 I lied when I said I wasn't going to post any more graphics of Peanuts Characters.  Here are some in sideview.

From left to right:  Charlie Brown, Linus Van Pelt, Lucy Van Pelt, Peppermint Patty, Sally Brown, Marcie

Bottom Row  Snoopy in two different poses, and Woodstock the bird

I  post my graphics here so I can easily view them from my iPad.  I do it primarily for my own benefit, but if readers enjoy them, so much the better.

 

The Coming Civil War

 I post and read others' posts on X every day.  There you can see and feel the deepest and most virulent left wing hatred.  It is so intense it is often alarming.  President Trump is falsely accused of being a pedophile and "raping little girls."  There are daily prayers for his death.  It is no wonder that he has been the target of three assassination attempts.

If the Democrats win the midterm elections this November, Trump will be the target of a third impeachment proceeding.  His only crime is making the Democrats look bad by comparison and derailing their collectivist and corruption plans.  Nevertheless, they continually call for his prosecution and imprisonment.

I don't see how we can ever have a united country again.  With the Democrats, this is war, a civil war that is currently non-violent but may not remain that way indefinitely.

Marcie and Sally Brown of Peanuts Fame

 Below is Marcie and Sally Brown from the Charlie Brown commics pages.  Marcie was the best friend of Peppermint Patty and Sally is the little sister of Charlie Brown.  

I have enjoyed recreating these characters, it has provided me with a lot of practice creating graphic illustrations in Adobe Illustrator.  Tomorrow I must turn to other subjects.

Lucy Van Pelt and Peppermint Patty

 Two more for the Peanuts colletion:  Lucy Van Pelt and Peppermint Patty.  I have maybe two more Peanuts girls to do, Marcie and Sally.

8/30/2026:  I wasn't happy with my first version of Peppermint Patty so I tweaked her a  lot this morning.

Linus and the Great Pumpkin 2026

 If you are less than 60 years of age, you may not be familiar with Charles Shultz or his body of work, known as the Peanuts Comic Strip. It ran in many newspapers from 1950 to early 2000, when he passed away at age 80.  One of his strips featured Linus, who had his own holiday, headed by the Great Pumpkin who would rise out of the Pumpkin Patch every Halloween to bring presents and gifts to kids everywhere.   My latest depiction of this story is below.

Linus Van Pelt of Charlie Brown Fame

 More Charlie Brown characters, drawn in in Adobe Illustrator.  Sorry for not posting more serious stuff with the world going to hell and all, but I just love doing it.  Also, you learn by doing, and to learn Illustrator, you must create many graphics and solve problems as they arise.  

I will use some of my graphic depictions in Holiday posts later on.

I do not own any "Peanuts" characters, they are owned by the estate of the late Charles Schultz, a personal hero of mine.  I recreate these images to honor the late, great Charles Schultz.  My use of these images is for educational purposes only.

Linus was always shown with messy hair and wearing a red shirt with black stripes. He is often seen clinging to a security blanket, a holdover from his early childhood that he hasn't been able to give up.   He is featured in tales of  'The Great Pumpkin," a kind of holiday hero like Santa Claus that Linus invented.  Every Halloween while the rest of the Peanuts gang are out trick or treating, Linus remains in the local pumpkin patch awaiting the arrival of the Great Pumpkin who supposedly will bring gifts to its faithful followers.  Linus is disappointed every time when the Great Pumpkin fails to appear.  Linus explains this by saying his pumpkin patch was not sincere enough and so was passed by.

Charles Schultz was a Christian and it seems he was satirizing some of the weird "Christinan" religions that have sprung up over the years, prophesying great rewards for their followers.  I won't mention who he might have been satirizing, but there are two major allegedly Christian religions that no doubt fall into this category.