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Sacrifice Your Queen
🕑 Added 2019-04-12 06:29:34 +0000 UTCDear Insane Children,
Many have lost sense of the meaning of sacrifice. It was once a given that we sacrificed constantly and automatically as a function of our family, culture, and religion - and that life was, in essence, an ongoing series sacrifices towards something greater than ourselves.
As a child, I remember reading the fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper, a story in which an idle grasshopper neglects to make the necessary sacrifices towards the future. As a result he faces a winter without food or shelter; a death sentence for his fun. This narrative did and still does terrify me. In those moments where I fail to plan or execute correctly I hear the ants saying, "...dance the winter away now."
Our modern world has effectively built itself around the reduction of sacrifice. We're sold devices, medicines, and inventions which do things faster, easier, and cheaper. Life contains less pain, frustration and annoyance and we expect that these reductions and improvements will continue reducing and improving into the future.
And yet we find ourselves less happy and less fulfilled; despite the shiny new things we continually shovel into that hole in our souls... making things easy isn't making things better.
True Sacrifice
Sacrifice is hard. It means giving up the things we love, going to the places we dread, facing the monsters we fear, and confronting aspects of ourselves we loath.
And because it's hard, we like to pretend not to know where to start, what to sacrifice, and how. But we know this to be a lie. We are, sadly, really good at lying to ourselves.
You are holding a compass. A simple way to determine what you should sacrifice:
Just ask, "What is the hardest thing I should be doing right now?"
True sacrifice is always in the answer to that question. You know it. It's right in front of you and then...
When I need to tackle something difficult I'll suddenly find myself washing the dishes or walking the dog. "How did I end up here?" as if some autopilot in my brain magically removed me from the difficult task at hand.
Which is why ritual is helpful. And tackling these things in groups. Some call that religion. Some call it work. Call it what you like but identify the hard things you should be doing right now, build a system around those things... and do them! As the saying goes, Winter is Coming.
Sacrifice Your Queen
This latest poster image from Omri is called "Sacrifice Your Queen" and depicts Alice wrestling with her Shadow Self over their efforts to save the Red Queen. The Queen, the most powerful chess piece on the board, is the most powerful sacrifice a player can make. Some interesting notes on this topic over on Wikipedia.
Sacrifice is only meaningful when we give up that which is most valuable to us.
And the ultimate sacrifice is the one we make of our selves to the greater good.
It will be interesting to see how Alice and her Shadow Self overcome this scene. What sort of sacrifice might they make to move themselves and the story forward?
Let's hear your thoughts on sacrifice in the comments below!
A Few Notes
I am back from Thailand after another successful Pirate Jam. Arg!
We will make "Sacrifice Your Queen" our next art print. If you want one via Patreon please make sure you're at the correct tier!
Our shipping partners tell us there are postal delays around the globe - but primarily in the US, centered on the Chicago Distribution Hub for USPS - which means our expected delivery time for items sent from China has gone from ~20 days to 30+ days. Please keep this in mind when waiting for items we ship to arrive with you!
Font Lord would like me to remind you: If you receive an item from us in damaged condition, fear not! Simply PM US, provide images of said damage, and we'll ship you a replacement for free. Easy!
Now that I am back in Shanghai, I'll catch up with our artists, follow up on our business development, and basically, you know, get back to work! Can't be a pirate forever, matey!
If you've not yet seen it, do take a moment to check out Episode 1 of Pirate Jam 2019. There are more episodes on the way but I think this one is pretty arrre-some!
From Shanghai with Love,
-American (and LULU!)
Comments
This poster looks really good, so detailed and I adore the colors! I only have one major problem: the horses are WAAAY TOO hairy. I don't think they need any fur at all, but this amount of fur is too much even for a pony from the northern regions :)
that print is amazing! Such rich detail and a real sense of conflict. I'll have to make sure to get a copy of this
