Wearing Our Lives
I recently watched a short film about a Caricaturist named John Kascht who draws famous people. As someone that couldn’t draw my way out of a connect-the-dots book, I was greatly impressed by what he was able to create. At the beginning of the film, he made a statement about how he “sees” his subjects which, I have to admit, I find considerably intriguing and feel is worthy of a spot of discussion. The original video is called Funny Bones and is available at http://devour.com/video/funny-bones/.
“Over time, we each develop a unique look depending on what we encounter in life. So… at any given age… your appearance can read like a map of where you have been… we literally WEAR our lives…”
He is talking about the features of our faces, the mannerisms of our bodies and the way we “carry” ourselves. I think that we also carry around the people that have influenced us, both positive and negative, and the experiences that effect the way we look at life… This for me is probably illustrated best in my former Youth Pastor informing me that he had at least 5 grey hairs with my name on them! He is effectively wearing ME on his head!
As I write this – news is breaking of the death of Osama Bin Laden… If you are looking for a poster child for a person that has influenced the entire western world and their perception of Arab people – then you needn’t look much further. We are all very quick to remember the bad-guys… Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot, Bin Laden – they all shape our ideas about society, and “the dark side” and they can even provide us with a sense of our own “goodness”… They leave a mark on our society that can greatly effect how we see the world around us.
It is exciting that in building a new world like 2ndcity, that we get to create something that leaves a positive mark on people’s lives. I have loads of “friends” on Facebook that are young 20-somethings that I have been Youth Pastor or Chaplain of in my previous roles… Some of them they aren’t actively pursuing a life of faith, but they still choose to have me in their world… I think that when people head off and live a life, they often will keep some form of attachment to a time when life was a lot more simple… So I am lucky enough to be an influence that they carry around with them. I actually value having these relationships as I get to live out my life of faith in an authentic and honest manner, and there are times when they truly amaze me at how happy they are to have me around. The Youth Pastor I mentioned above was telling me over a coffee in Palmerston North last year… that another former student had made some bad decisions, and when he was asked who he wanted to talk to whilst in Prison, the first person he thought of was his old Youth Pastor…
The investment we make in young people is truly something that will stay with them forever. You are involved in a task and calling that at times can be thankless. But the true reward is when you still have your young people in your life, many years after the programmes have stopped.
I encourage you to be someone that your young people will wear with a true sense of value and a kind-hearted fondness.
If you want to look at a very talented person tell the story of his process of developing some incredible Caricatures – check out Funny Bones below!
