Originally published in the Grand Rapids Business Journal, February 28, 2005.

In my youth, I was often stricken with the notion, the sudden and stark realization that I didn't know what the hell I was doing. With what? Oh, pretty much everything. Chemistry experiments, 20-foot jump shots, talking to girls, drawing comics, pouring a bowl of breakfast cereal -- you name it. It was awful. A nasty little voice of anxiety inside my head that would yell out "Fake! Fraud! Poser! You'll never be really cool and well-adjusted like, like Michael Jackson!" (It was nasty voice, not a particularly prophetic one.) And I'd get all seized up until I could stop listening to the voice and go on.

Here's the part where I'm supposed to tell you that I've learned to overcome this, that I no longer hear that voice. But that's not true. I hear it all the time. The difference that has come with age and maturity is realizing that pretty much everybody hears that voice, and that basically we are all making it up as we go along. Oh, I have plans and goals, and I have experience, but when I begin to, say, draw a comic, I know that I don't have any special qualifications for knowing what is funny. All I know is what I think is funny, and I have to go with that. Most of the time, the system works well. At least, I think it does. I hope so. (Don't tell me if it doesn't.) But sometimes it truly doesn't, like when something amuses only me.

Right. Here's the background on this week's comic: East Grand Rapids, our local upper middle-class, residential enclave (sort of what Grosse Point is to Detroit) had a vote on whether to allow a development of seven-story condos in its downtown area. You don't want to know the whole story and I don't want to tell it, but the upshot was this: the residents voted "yes" and that will bring change and hard-feelings to this close-knit community of stately homes, beautiful parks, and excellent schools.

To live in East Grand Rapids is to be in an American fairy tale. Ah! There was my funny idea! Fairy tales, high rises... Rapunzel! I had my doubts as to whether anybody else in the world would find this amusing, but it seemed to express my sediment that, yeah, the high-rises might not be a good idea, but on the whole things ain't bad.

But then I just had to take it a step further. I couldn't use the word "fairy" and not take advantage of it. So I made this little aside:

(Ada, for those still reading, is also an upper middle-class residential town, but typically on the more socially conservative side.) My editor emailed me and said, "What's going on in Ada?" And I replied, "Rampant Homophobia!" which could be true, but I had no actual public incident to point to. So we agreed to cut the aside.

However, due to an error at the printer, the original comic with the "fairy" aside was used in the printed edition of the Business Journal. Kinda funny, huh? At least, I think it's funny. Don't you? I, I don't know what the hell I'm doing....