Senator Franken revives craft of doodling

A psychologist might have certain interpretations of what doodling represents. Is our U.S. Senator Al Franken reviving the practice, the innocence of which is open to debate? Franken did a quite nice little drawing of one of his colleagues.
Does this mean his attention wasn't adequately focused during the Elena Kagan hearings? The Senate Judiciary Committee was examining the Supreme Court Justice-to-be.
Perhaps Senator Franken wanted to take his mind off the predictable and in many cases (from Republicans) tedious/chafing line of questioning/grilling. I don't blame Senator Al for wanting to doodle instead of paying attention to some of the attack dog Republicans.
I remember glancing over to a fellow student on the first day of a college semester once, and seeing that he had drawn a pizza and beer on his notebook page. He even labeled them "pizza" and "beer" lest his artwork was seen to have some shortcomings.
But is doodling art? Is it a bad habit? Is it subversive? Is it a window into someone's soul? Does it reveal psychological issues?
I think the world would be a better place of more of us doodled. We have an instant gratification society in which our pace of thinking and living has become intense to a troubling degree. Do people even slow down to ponder if they're happy?
I read an analysis recently that asserted that boredom had been completely eliminated in our tech-fueled culture. Driving a car isn't enough to occupy one's attention. How often do you see people with a mobile phone to their ear when driving?
Doodling is a basic, retro way to slow down. Ironically there was once a time when doodling could combat boredom. Today we can use it as a wedge to withdraw from our tech distractions and frenetic pace of life. Ergo, it has a transcendent purpose!
I'm thrilled that Senator Franken, who might have the most creative mind in our nation's capitol, brought some sudden attention to the pastime. And it's not like he merely drew a stick figure. It was just as good as those drawings you'd see on matchbook covers promoting an art instruction school. "Draw Winky" they would implore.
I presume that matchbook cover art and advertising have faded along with the pastime of smoking itself. If someone hasn't done an interpretive study of matchbook cover communications, it should be done. Attention, some graduate school student somewhere.
Doodling is fascinating because of its informal and impulsive nature. Surely serious art instructors pooh-pooh it. When I was in college, I considered general education art classes to be exercises in pure garbage - a pretentious exploration of crap that might somehow be rationalized as serious art when most of it could be toted to the nearest dump.
No, doodling is a craft to be respected. It deserves a revival, if that's what Franken's little episode can inspire.
Bored in class? Do a little caricature of your instructor. You might get kicked out of class but so what? All the info you might get in the class is available on the Internet anyway.
All our traditional educational systems, as Tim Pawlenty famously pointed out on The Daily Show, are sinking rapidly into obsolescence just like newspapers.
How I'd love to see those art courses or "Sociology 101" be given a proper burial. Whoever decided that "Sociology 101" was something that had to be thrust on impressionable 19-year-old minds? Hats off to any student who chooses to doodle when such drivel is being shoveled at him/her.
The Franken episode reminded me of when I did gargoyle-type drawings on spiral notebook pages during bus trips for high school activities. I was in the Morris High School marching band when it made some quite long trips. I also kept the stat book for the MHS Tiger baseball team.
My drawings were sometimes offered as caricatures of some of my peers, and I can remember at least two of them who resented it. I didn't get punched out. The lines could be a little squiggly because I was drawing on a moving bus, but all in all I think the drawings had merit and they were somewhat unique.
How would I have engaged my time if not drawing? Horsing around with other kids or playing a mundane card game on a band instrument case?
I think doodling has advantages because it taps creative impulses and requires some sober concentration. For Franken he could escape some of the Republican-uttered rhetoric that was so trying to ingest.
Senator Al, I hope you have brought some renewed interest to a true "street craft," an artistic pastime truly of the people, a craft that can make a statement like "I'm bored and I can find better things to do."
In the old days my generation might describe it as a "beatnik" type of thing to do. "Beatnik" is a term that the oldest baby boomers are most familiar with. Bob Denver did a nice portrayal as "Dobie Gillis" on television. This was before Denver went on to great fame as "Gilligan" (vs. "the Skipper," remember?) in a show that was the epitome of lowest-common-denominator TV entertainment in the 1960s.
The beatniks preceded the hippies and the Yippies. "Do your own thing" was a trademark phrase of the liberated young crowd, and doodling seemed consistent with the whole blooming credo.
Doodling springs from your own life experience, and its impulsive nature means it's free of external guidance or discipline. It's a window into the soul. It's a way to escape tedious discussions or distractions.
A surprised onlooker will say "oh, look at that!" and immediately the attention is suspended on the purported matter at hand, which is often a great relief.
Elena Kagan will become a Supreme Court member and our Constitution will be safe under her scrutiny. Maybe she'll be tempted to doodle sometime on a napkin at a Chinese restaurant.
-Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com