Comics for the Home :: The Rainbow Bridge Experience
Celebration , Summer 2011
Rhythm of the HomeNo CommentI composed this comic while sitting in the car after my son’s birthday celebration in his Waldorf kindergarten, still emotional over it. The idea struck me that this event (and my thought commentary) would make an interesting comic. For me, the medium of comics (or by a fancier name, graphic novel or short story), with its integral combination of words and pictures, is a resonant way to capture the spirit of a narrative. This comic is about the three times, over three years, I watched my son participate in the Rainbow Bridge ceremony, and how he was too shy to cross until the third year. I wanted to show the simple ceremony in the classroom contrasted with my simultaneous memories of giving birth. And to bring out the profundity of the symbolic telling of the birth story for children as well as the actual difficulty of giving birth and having children. With out humor I’d never make it, so that’s a big part of this too. Karen White, my son’s brilliant teacher, said she had a good laugh over the comic, too.
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Glynnis Fawkes draws comics in Vermont about life with two small children who attend Waldorf School. She has an MFA in painting and on a Fulbright to Cyprus published books of her paintings and cartoons. She worked some years in the Eastern Mediterranean as illustrator for archaeological projects, and has published several books of comics. Her work can be found here.
