The free spirit.

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beauty, creativity, family, humor, inspiration, memories, motherhood, nostalgia, photography, poetry, travel, women

This hip chick is my mother.
The photo was taken around the time she began her career as a stay-at-home mom.

After giving my father credit for his hidden artistic talents (and at the risk of turning this forum into Joe’s nostalgia corner), I wanted to take a look at a different creative type.  If my father was a left-brain analytical, my mother personified the right-brain free spirit.

My mother had artistic ambitions. She was good with sketches, and I think I remember her working with pastels. But she was raising a family and it was hard to stick with it.

She was also a musician. She played the clarinet in the high school band (or faked it, as she would say, a skill I managed to master when I was in the band), and she was an excellent piano player. But she was raising a family and it was hard to stick with it.

She loved to write and was a master of the funny story. She wanted to be the next Erma Bombeck (a popular humorist of her day) and probably had the skills to pull it off. But she was raising a family and it was hard to stick with it.

Did I mention poetry? No, not the soul-searching free verse that is popular today, but poems that actually rhymed. And again, many were humorous. But she was raising a family it was hard to stick with it.

She also sewed and made clothes for the family. I consider sewing an art form, but for my mother, it was a necessary skill, one that she was able to stick with, because she was raising a family.

Like most right-brain thinkers, my mother had dreams of making it big, but they never panned out. Even so, at every stage of her life she was able to find contentment in the work that she did. Yes, she found happiness in her art, her music, her writing, her poetry. But she knew what was really important. It wasn’t a sacrifice for her to let her dreams take a back seat, it was her act of love for her family. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

Times have changed. With more options available, many mothers are able to work outside the home, fulfill their obligations as a mother, and still find time to pursue other interests. Roles are changing, too. Stay-at-home dads are much more common and give women even more choices.

But my mother’s world was different. Still, one truth remains.

Our time is short and our work is ephemeral.

Know what really matters and make the most of it.

Joseph E Bird

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From Joe Bird

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beauty, blogging, coffee, creative writing, creativity, dreams, family, fatherhood, painting, poetry, travel, writing

Do your thing.

This young man is my father.
The photo was taken in the early days of his career as an electrical engineer.

In many ways, he is the stereotypical engineer.  He’s analytical.  He’s a logical problem solver.  He pays attention to detail.  He would be considered a left-brain thinker.  Creative types – your artists, musicians, actors, dancers – are generally considered right-brian thinkers.  If you think with the left side of your brain, you’d make a good engineer.  If you think with the right side, you might be a good writer.  And for much of what I remember about my father, this would seem to hold true.

When I was growing up, I never remember him doing anything very creative.  He was very much an engineer, and was a great (if sometimes intimidating) teacher of math and science to me and my sisters.

Most of his career he worked for Union Carbide and when they began to build new production facilities in Texas, he was transferred to Houston.  My family moved to Texas twice, and when he was sent to Houston for a third time, he opted to go it alone and not put the family through another move. So what does an engineer living by himself do in his spare time?

Golf?  Maybe jigsaw puzzles?  No.  He took up painting.  When he returned home we were astounded by what he had done. Among other things, he painted this scene of the old Morgan homestead near Winfield (WV), across from what is now the John Amos power plant.

As far as I know, he had never painted anything before.  There were other paintings, including a very lifelike portrait of Pittsburgh Steeler great, Mean Joe Green.

But when he came back home, he was done with painting.

In the 4o-some years since, he’s completed home improvement projects and done some woodworking, but not much that would label him as a creative type.

Then last year, my sister suggested to our then 86-year-old father that he should do pencil sketches of his great-grandchildren. He agreed.  Here’s one of the twins, Bear.

For most of his life, my father has played the role of engineer.  He is still very practical and analytical, and his fondness for logic would make Mr. Spock proud. And then he’ll surprise us with those sparks of creativity that seem to come forth every forty years or so.

Lessons in all of this?

Don’t sell yourself short. You may not even realize the potential within.  Do your thing.

Too old? Nope. That just doesn’t cut it. Do your thing.

It will make your life better.

 

 

 

 

Joseph E Bird

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From The President’s Desk

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Andy Crouch, creativity, education, inspiration, novel, painting, poetry, power

A Message From Our President

By T. L. Shelton

 

“Whoever brings blessing will be enriched,

And the one who waters will himself be refreshed.” Proverbs 11:25

When I took this job, or, rather, accepted this position, it was with the understanding that I would not be responsible for any scholarly work. I was, and am, an administrator, and my gifts do not include those of scholarly expression and composition. In other words, I hate to write.

Since this school was resurrected by writers, I felt safe in assuming that I would not be called upon to write much or to contribute to the college’s several, excellent publications. But, as everyone here at the college is well aware, life sometimes surprises us. None of us would have ever believed that there would be a college in Saint Albans in 2014, much less that we would be a part of it and even more that its influence would be worldwide through the work of its faculty as they write and publish.

I am writing this, not because I have been compelled or extorted into doing so. Heck, I’m not even asking for money. What happened was this: in my reading (even though I don’t write much, I do read extensively – this should be some comfort to the trustees) I came across a few paragraphs that so perfectly and completely set out and explain the founding principles of the new Shelton College that I just had to say something about it.

The title of the book is Playing God. That sounds sacrilegious at first, but the book is anything but that. It’s written by Andy Crouch, who is an Episcopalian and the editor of the magazine, Christianity Today. The book is outstanding and full of other wisdom that I won’t have room for here, so pick a copy up for yourself.

The subject of the book is power. He starts with the premise that humanity was created to exercise power. To have dominion over the fields and forests, the flocks and the teeming fishes in the sea. Of course, we’ve messed it up, and history is full of examples of the misuse of power and the dire consequences that result.

Nonetheless, Crouch argues, we humans are made to exercise power – to create, to produce and to influence. To the extent we are prevented from doing these things, or at least attempting them, we are frustrated and bored. That, in itself, is so close to the primary motivation for the new college that it would justify the president who hates to write to start knocking out a few paragraphs. Let me first say that I am right with Mr. Crouch in this first proposition. Human beings are not happy – they are not actualized – if they cannot in some way create. I’m not a poet or painter, but it is true of me, nonetheless. I am at my best and feel most alive when I am able to organize and bring people together around ideas and goals. That’s how I create and that is what the trustees here have given me another chance to do in this second career of mine. Moreover, in the few months this college has been up and running again, I have seen this truth borne out over and over in the lives of those who bring their varied expertise to our table.

So. Good enough. But, still, not my reason for writing. What was even more striking to me, and even closer to home here in Shelton College, is the notion that power is not a zero-sum game. That is, I do not gain power by making sure that others have less of it. In fact, my power – my ability to create, produce and influence – is multiplied when the power and influence of others around me is increased. In fact, if any individual is ever to make full use of his abilities or to know the full extent of his powers, he is inevitably at the mercy of those around him who in many ways will know him better that he knows himself. Crouch says that power of which the individual is unaware is “perilous and wasted.” He offers this remedy:

None of us can map our power [abilities] for ourselves. We need one another to fill out our maps, to point out the resources we have of which we are unaware, and to warn us when we are at risk of misusing something we don’t even know we have.

How many times I have seen that very thing happen in our midst here this first year together. There are novels and poems being written, paintings being painted, music being played. All of it might have happened anyway, in some form or another, but the point is that the books and poems are better now than they would otherwise have been. They are making their way into the community and into the world now in ways that would not have happened before. It is almost miraculous. How can this happen? Crouch explains:

Such mapping requires trust, because drawing the map itself is an exercise in power that can be used well or abused. Trust can coexist with confrontation and critique, but only when it is undergirded by a confidence that we are for each other – allies in one another’s flourishing, cultivating and creating – rather than using our insights into one another’s power to win our own game.

I don’t know, really, what I can add to that. Only to say that it is exactly the spirit that now prevails here at this lovely little school. I will do my part to see that it stays that way. The results from such a continued alliance will undoubtedly be overwhelming.