Making the Clackity Noise

Last week, some friends and myself went to see Rob Bell speak about creativity. But more specifically, creativity that stems from suffering.

One of the points he made was that God uses suffering to create by elimination. And to illustrate that point, he handed out bars of soap to us and showed us pictures of sculptures that others made from their soap. His point was that there were rabbits or crosses or hands or faces inside each of those bars of soap. It was up to us to eliminate the parts that weren’t rabbits or crosses or hands or faces to get those pictures out of there.

Merlin writes about this fantastic idea (click the link at the top of the post). That inside of everyday objects there are stories and art and things that make us smile. Inside of bars of soap there are sculptures. Inside of puddles there are photographs. Where there’s an open car window, there’s music. And inside of keyboards, there are stories. Its up to us to pull sculptures and photographs and music and stories out of there.

I’d post just an excerpt of what Merlin wrote, but it wouldn’t give you any clear idea of what Merlin (or myself) was trying to say. So, just go read the damn post, and start writing. I know I want to. And I know I’m going to.

Maybe, right now.

My dad has worked in agriculture all my life, and as any Midwesterner knows, that means he has driven a pickup truck my entire life. That meant we were ALWAYS given the luxury of sitting in the front seat with dad. My brother and I would fit over who had to sit in the middle, but man, we both got to sit in the front seat, and that was the important part.

When we were 5 or 6, my dad would take us during the summer out to the fields with him to see the combines or crop dusters or whatever huge piece of farming equipment was out there that day. I remember he’d play this joke on us as we were driving though. He would shut is right eye and then pretend that he was starting to fall asleep as he drove. Of course, we couldn’t see his left eye, so, being 5 or 6, we would think he really was falling asleep. I can’t tell you how scared out of my mind that left me.

I think I’ve told my wife that story 13 times since we started dating. Its crazy to me how those little things like your dad playing a stupid joke on you when you’re 6 stick with you like that.

But they do, and wouldn’t life suck if they didn’t?