Three different cars got to play their bit part in this cartoon, each in their turn. First, I used a Lotus. Then an Austin Healey. Then a Land rover.

The composition was classic in that it was about the car and yet focused on the pretty girl. In chess, I used to do something similar in that I’d feign one strategy while stealthily setting up another. If the car is the main object, and it was, then why did the girl take up the center stage?

Think whole picture. A car isn’t about itself. It’s about the world with that car in it and how it then is a better world. A prettier world. A more enjoyable world.

So in this cartoon, the car takes position in the shadows, being what a car is: a tool. Here, it’s taking a child to enjoy the celebration known as Halloween which merges dress up fantasy and candy. The girl has gone to a lot of trouble to costume up for the event and she’s been brought there in the Land Rover.

As a fun aside I included a ‘real’ faerie who is waiting to nab the dropped peanut butter cup.

The macabre side of Halloween has never appealed to me. The cute little cowboys and fairy princesses always were the treat worth rewarding.

This year, I posted the cartoon to a Facebook Land Rover group with a caption suggesting that we take our children in style to get their candy. Within minutes, an admin had prohibited comments. I requested an explanation of the moderator. Not long after, the post was taken down and so I requested input from the group owner.

Ignored, I was left to ponder. Did someone make a lewd comment? If so that should have been scrubbed and the comment writer dealt with. Is it that the girl is young? If so, why are so many photos allowed that show owners’s children with the car? Did the moderator just miss that there is a Land Rover – the star of the group – waiting by the curb?  Or was there consternation because it was a pretty lass? No.

By the next day, I’d removed all my posts from the group and with no return communication from the monitors I opted to exit entirely. Censorship is one thing, it is someone else’s group after all, but censorship with no explanation when one is requested is another matter. The cartoon did not run afoul of any rule known to me. I own the copyright. The character is fictional.

But the group is administered in England. So maybe there is some culture element I’ve missed.

This cartoon is the least among my collection. It doesn’t aim to be humorous or to decry a social wrong or poke fun. It simply illustrates the sweet side of a tradition. So maybe it isn’t actually among the least of them because that’s my stock and trade.

How this diminutive image may end up mattering the most is that it reminded me again that when you have a voice in social media, it’s always by invitation and always subject to the whims of others and it’s censure reminds me that there is a part of society that does not share discourse. Social media is their place of power.

Whether any of that is actually involved, I can not say. I just know that I posted something I thought was consistent both with the aim of the group and the season and that would be enjoyed by group members and it was removed with no explanation.

True, having my own site is similar in that aside from no one knowing I exist and the reality that if I offend the search engine providers I can also not be found easily, at least I can speak and not expect to have my message summarily made to disappear.

Not that I’m controversial. Nor am I a trouble maker. Imagine if I was! If the cartoon is too much, then a principled stand would kick up a dust storm for sure!

And maybe that’s not such a bad thing. I really should post here more often and avail myself of the freedom.