Lemonading
This week I encountered the word “Lemonading” from an article in the newsletter, Nice News. I was of course familiar with the proverbial phrase, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” from which the word was derived. Lemonading is a bit more than just making the most of a bad situation. America has always had the lingering shadow of the Puritan work ethic and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps, via Horatio Alger and many others, but this idea is different.
Lemonading is more about play and a creative approach to facing hardships and the challenges in life. It is not about ignoring the circumstances and focuses on a realistic view of the situation. Lemonading is about finding joy and satisfaction even in difficult circumstances using creativity and play.
I intend to try to make lemonading part of my daily practice alongside exercise, meditation, and drawing.
Be kind to yourself on your creative journey.
Behind the Drawing
I wanted to share some of my thought process that went into the illustration this week. When thinking about the phrase, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” the idea for a lemon character popped into my head. It does seem a bit odd for a lemon to be drinking lemonade, but then I remembered the Planters Peanut character, Mr. Peanut, who sells peanuts, so why not.
Other ideas that inspired the character, besides Mr. Peanut, were the Mr. Monopoly, The Great Gatsby, and Willie Wonka. In the end, it really was my own take on a lemon in a dashing green suit. I figured if someone was going to make money out of the lemon industry, it should be a billionaire Lemon.
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You have reached the end of the newsletter. On the album Zooropa (1993) by U2, there is a song titled “Lemon.” The song was inspired by old video footage of lead vocalist Bono's late mother. He has said that the lyrics describe an attempt to preserve memory through film.