It is not enough for us that we simply live and breathe. We are animals, but we are more than animals. We are creators. We fashion things with our hands to reflect our thoughts, our feelings, our concepts. We take objects and mold them and make them speak for us. We make them into images of our ideas of ourself. Paint, clay, snow--it doesn’t matter what--we take it and make it into an object. We are unique among the animals in that way. No other creature does this.
Some of us can fashion things that are so lifelike, it takes
the breath away. Others of us have much
cruder skills, but we still fashion things.
We make images of animals and fish, birds and plants, people and even
aliens--ideas of what we think aliens might look like. It doesn’t matter what: we fashion it.
We make it feverishly because we cannot stop. We are creators because we know no other
thing.
We are imitators because we are imitations. We make what we are. An imitation is a reflection, a likeness, of
something actual. But we are not that
“first thing.” We are not the actual
thing. We are the likeness of it, the
image in the water, the reflection. The
shadow cannot do anything that the body does not do, and the light behind the
body knows this to be true. We are the
fashioned things of the fashioner.
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| From the hands of the sculptor. |
