Behind the Curtain

Subj: Leadership cartoon
Date: 99-10-19 16:24:28 EDT
From: rsuggs56@yahoo.com (Rob Suggs)
To: kmiller@ChristianityToday.com (Kevin Miller)

Try to pretend I haven't forsaken cartooning for as long as it took Jacob to earn a wife. Be casual. Don't make any sudden moves. I'll try not to go skittering back into the forest. This took courage on my part, a life-or-death grappling with my fear of rejection. For five long years I labored over this caption, fine-tuning it, straining for months on a single adverbial clause. It had to be perfect; it had to be no less than the greatest LEADERSHIP cartoon ever published.

I spent months closeted away, with my wife leaving a cup of water and a single slice of diet bread by the door. I missed my child's bar mitzvah (okay, I made that part up). Demons raged over my tormented soul as I fought delirium. Only The Caption mattered. The Caption. The Caption.

Day, night, seasons—these things had no meaning for me. Like Michelangelo, like ...