"Is Dan Lietha in a Wheelchair?"

Last Sunday a couple of Creation Museum staff members told me that they'd been asked by some visitors to the museum if I was in a wheelchair. In fact, the people asking the question said they were currently having a debate in their family over this question. This puzzled me. What would cause anybody to think that I use a wheelchair? 

Admittedly, as a cartoonist/illustrator, I sit for a living and that's one thing about my profession that I don't particularly care for because of what it does to a person's body. Late last year I had a solution to my sitting all day problem, but things changed and that's not possible anymore. The only time I'd actually sat in a wheelchair in the last two or three decades was a little over a year ago when I was in the hospital for an appendectomy. Actually, now that I think about it, I was wheeled around twice during that hospital stay. The first ride was up to my room and the second wheelchair excursion delivered me to the exit doors so I could leave the hospital. The second ride, with me minus a very grumpy appendix, was MUCH better than the first ride, let me tell ya!

Now, I know that nobody took my picture during either of those wheelchair rides. So how is it that visitors to the Creation Museum would ask if I was in a wheelchair? After pondering this I thought of some photos that were taken of me drawing caricatures in Washington DC at the NEA conference. Photos that I posted to this very blog in my previous entry. The chair in question is one that I've used since the early 1990's to draw caricatures. If you see a photo of me sitting in it, without seeing the lower part of the chair, like the photo to the left, it could easily be mistaken for a wheelchair. Back up the camera and you can see that my chair is in fact, just a chair. It's funny that in all the years that I've sat in this chair, I've never come across this situation. Maybe I need to get a new caricature chair! It is getting pretty old.

So, to add further clarification, below you will find a photo of me not sitting, a rarity for sure. This photo was taken on the same day as the sitting photo that was, to my best guess, in question.  I hope this information and these photos are a comfort to all those that may have thought the same thing about my chair. Currently I'm walking, standing and even jogging (to the fridge) quite well. 

For the family that asked about me at the Creation Museum, thank you for your concern. I appreciate it very much! And thanks too for providing me with something to write about on my blog. :-) I hope you liked reading this entry as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Also, if there is anybody out there that would like to help me to be able to stand while I illustrate, I'd welcome a donation of the following art/computer desk or another product like it. But for now, without such a desk, when I illustrate, I sit. I can do no other.