CRAYONS  AND  CLAY

Adults know – somehow they know
to say, "Thank you!"
without being told to say it
when a kid hands us a drawing –
or a statue they made from clay or play dough.
Putting the drawing on the refrigerator door
or the clay cat or dog on a shelf
or a very prominent place,
so the creator can notice it every time,
now that’s learned behavior….
God the Creator has to be saying “Wow!”
and “Thank you” as well.
“Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.”
But what does someone feel when he or she
finds in an attic box or cellar trunk
old papers and pictures
from mom or dad – or grandparents –
a crayoned Picasso or an impressionistic painting
or sculpture or note book that he or she drew
or wrote in when they were 2, 3 or 4?
It has to be somewhat like the feelings
the 4 teenagers had who discovered the Cave of Lascaux
in southwest France in 1940 with all those drawings
of bisons and bulls, horses and penguins
dated back to Paleolithic times –
some 15,000 to 17,000 years ago –
or the feeling the shepherd or goatherd had
who discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947.
Wait! There's more to come.
Imagine all the undiscovered paintings and scrolls
in trunks and boxes in attics and cellars,
as well as in the caves of the human heart,
waiting to be discovered, “Thank you!” “Wow!”

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009