TALENTS

I’ve always envied those artsy-crafty sort of talented folks. You know the ones; people who have an inner vision that translates everyday objects into works of art that please the eye and soothes the soul with beauty. My sisters Donna and Teresa are such individuals.

Donna paints wonderful landscapes, carves miniature cabins (sometimes entire villages) out of found limbs & wood chips and made all the decorations for her daughter’s wedding out of cast-off wicker baskets and dollar store finds gussied up to rival anything you could find in those high $$$ stores. Teresa does the same kinda home-made magic with garden art made from flea market treasures and old furniture reborn after she does her thing with some discount paint and fabric. Both can also take a bit of cloth and sew up everything from new curtains to Halloween costumes without a pattern. In fact almost every member of my family is crafty in one fashion or another.

{{{Sigh}}} Me, I don’t have that inner eye; I’m more mechanically inclined. I look at those cute garden sculptures (like the rooster with a yard rake for a tail) made out of nuts and bolts & cast-off sheet metal and think “I can do that!” But........ No matter how long I ponder or how much I move various bits around, I can’t look at a pile of raw materials and see how to cobble together something new and wonderful. I can copy anything or follow instructions as well as anyone alive. I have the skills; I can weld, sew, carpenter and fabricate with the best of ‘em. I just lack the imagination to come up with an original design, dang it all.

Now in the kitchen I can concoct wonderful dishes out of almost nothing. I slice and dice with the best, almost never follow a recipe and usually get raves from anyone sitting at my table even if they don't know for sure what the hell it is that they're eating. I can take various types of machinery apart and put it back together with a minimum of spare parts left over. I can paint houses, install minor electrical items, operate anything with 4 wheels, am an old pro at using power tools (I even own quite a few!) design landscapes and run a power plant control room but......... I lack that wonderful talent for developing splendor out of nothing.

I guess all of us can’t be artists; someone has to do the drudge work of keeping everything running while the gifted ones give us something to look forward to at the end of the day. I just wish I had been born with a smidgen of some kind of artistic ability. I would love to be able sing on key, to paint something that doesn't look like a 1st grader did it with finger paints, to draw more than a straight line (and only then by using a ruler), to have the ability to take scrap parts and construct something that makes bystanders go “AH!” but it’ll never happen.

At least I was born with the talent to recognize the beauty that others create. Without bragging, I do have an ear for good music and a discerning eye for art. I have my parents (especially Mom) to thank for my good taste. That puts me miles above some others that I’ll not name, who wouldn’t recognize beauty if it bit them on the butt and have no idea that Elvis painted on black velvet does not qualify as fine art.

What about you? What talents can you claim as your very own?