MISERY LOVES COMPANY BUT IT AIN'T ME
by Sean Ward

So I’m going to write a Guest Bytch. Well, what do I have to bitch about? Let’s start with the thing itself: BYTCH. I’m making an assumption that they are as I begin this, but are bitch and bytch truly interchangeable? Wasn’t it Ice Cube who said a Bytch is a Bitch?

I’m surprised at myself that I’m consciously trying to come up with something to bitch about. Maybe someone got his name higher on the marquee than mine, or so-and-so is in a position of influence of my industry and hasn’t had me on his show yet. Or maybe even the other guy’s audience is all a bunch of no-class-having jackasses. Any way I go with that, energy I put into bitching about it is energy I’m not putting into solving the problem, and there’s not one of us who hasn’t experienced first hand over and over that bitching about it never solves anything.

But we love to bitch. When I’m bitching about something, I’m explaining to myself why it’s not my fault. And if it’s not my fault, it’s not my responsibility and thus not my problem. Just the other day, a friend was explaining to me why and how we are all doomed to live as a docile servant class, beholden to a small network of old-money families. This seems to be a favorite topic of conversation for the 25-35ers that I meet, and my position was, as it is, that even if he’s right, the point he’s missing is the very principle our culture was founded on: that anyone can, through determination and persistence, move between levels. He insisted that there’s a deliberate system of pacification and indoctrination in place to enslave us, I maintained that one’s position in life is in one’s own hands and that one can put into action a plan to improve one’s circumstances at any time. He told me that I’m trying too hard to see everything through rose-colored glasses, I told him that there’s no reason to even exist if there’s no inclination towards evolution and personal betterment. He accused me of getting angry with him, I said that I just didn’t want to go in circles around something that really doesn’t matter any way.

People my age love to bitch. I used to indulge in it myself, but I noticed something interesting. The people who complain about the money system being rigged against them work at jobs they hate. The people who claim that knowledge is a privilege of the elite, withheld from the masses to keep us ignorant are the people who know all the jokes from The Simpsons and Family Guy but haven’t stepped inside a public library in years. I suspect that many of them secretly do wish for the end of the world just so that they can be right about having called it.

But when I started having success and meeting other successful people, it was totally different. They tell me that all I have to do is make a decision about what I want to have or be, and be willing to do whatever it takes until I get there. Did you know that one dollar a day put into an account that earns 10% interest annually is one million dollars in 43 years? I mention this to anyone who claims that the money system is corrupted and it’s revealing that not one has gone and opened a new savings account.

People love to bitch because people love to be right. And when you hate your job, your partner drives you crazy and your relationships are unfulfilling, you’ve got nothing to be right about except for that everything sucks. Me, I’ve got first hand experience to the contrary. Life is grand and the world is a wonderful place. If you want to fight me on it, you’ll be left over there muttering to yourself because I’m too busy over here making miracles happen.

Sean Ward has been called "Toronto's Comics Rockstar" and "the hardest working man in comics".  He got started in 2003 selling his photocopied mini-comics from a street corner to pay the rent.  From those humble beginnings he has built an underground empire with his comic books, events, stage performances, and an all-consuming dedication to his art.  Sean has just signed with Speakeasy Comics, who will be publishing, The Sean Ward Electric Comics Freak-Out! internationally in full-color in 2006.  It's www.seanward.netfor the goods.