My daughter choose the brachiosaurus for her second grade dinosaur science project. I helped her cut out the side out of a shoe box, bought her clay and paints and let her go to town doing whatever she would like to do. She had a bit of a snag getting the legs to stay on the body, so we pushed in paperclips to make it all stick together. She painted the sun with yellow glitter glue, made rocks out of clay and stuck tomato stems to the box for trees. All in all, when we left the house this morning I thought it was a pretty good second grade project.
That was until I saw the other projects that ended up in second grade. There were molded T-Rexs with ceramic fish in their mouths. Some boxes were filled with peat moss, real water and suns that were electric. I saw one mom set down a project that made roaring noises when you pushed a button. Very few of the projects looked like a kid actually did them, rather I could tell that their parents spent hours and hours building them.
I watch one mother gently carry in her son’s box and set it on the table. Her face had a glow about it, as she adjusted the fake little trees made with real plants and put the finishing touches on the spine of a triceratops. I heard her exclaim, “Wow, I’m so glad that is done, but it sure was fun!” Then I realized, for many of these parents this was a creative activity for THEM. They actually got to build something, do something artistic; something that other people might actually appreciate.
Once I realized this, my annoyance at the whole idea of a parent doing a kid’s science project evaporated. It was replaced with a sadness that for many people, living a creative life just isn’t something they’ve thought about. But I know there is a yearning for many people to be creative, to bring new things into existence, to express themselves. I believe that this creative drive comes from a spiritual place in each of us. In fact, I don’t know if one can be spiritual without also being creative; they are two sides of the same proverbial coin.
If all that expended energy that I saw today (the energy poured into dinosaur dioramas) was put into creative endeavors, this community would be a different place. Not only could new ideas be written, paintings created, political problems solved, but the people, the parents and the kids would be so much more fulfilled.
Bottom line, we are created to create. Figure out how to be creative in your life, in your own way and right there, in that space, you’ll find your salvation.
