CARTOON 3/26/13

We're peering in through the window at an H&R Block where a sheepish looking man (think Jerry Garcia) in white painters overalls (splattered with different colored paint) sits slumped in his chair across the desk from a serious looking older woman CPA. The woman is clearly puzzled, completely dumbfounded in fact. She can barely see the man past the mountain of papers.

CPA WOMAN: "Mr. Morgan, I uh, well, I just don't know where to even begin here. You're self employed, you run a painting business, and you're telling me you haven't filed your taxes since 1998?"

MAN: "I guess I sort of thought... Well, I don't know what I thought exactly. You know, the days just sort of run together, I mean, this world, ya know, it's just like this fog. It's like I have a hard time believing I'm even here, that any of this is even happening, you know what I mean? I just, you know, I thought I was going to be this famous painter. I was showing all over the place. I had an agent; I was selling my work. But then, you know, I don't know what happened, it all just stopped. And then I just didn't care about it anymore. I mean, art's dead. It doesn't make a difference, it doesn't matter. You know, and then I thought I would just kill myself. I mean, that's been the plan for years now. I was gonna do it this morning. I had this tree picked out at the base of the mountain but, you know, I don't know, I just can't bring myself to do it."