A Nylon on a Stick!

There it is, a nylon on a stick!

Working in my studio I’d run into a conundrum. Not unusual, but I’d wondered into another area of mystery and needed some advice.

I took a break from my cubical and sat down in the coffee area for a mental break. Another artist joined me and we began to talk. I shared with her how I had inadvertently ended up with a spaceship instead of the form of a round ball.

She agreed that the first idea I'd had, had been the right one. It would have been the artists way. But now that I’d gone with the joining of two bowel shapes, there was a solution. My heart leaped in anticipation of success.

She disappeared into her cubical, musing around her drawers and shelves, “Here is what you need”, she said, “Slap it into shape with this wooden spoon.” handing me a piece of wood stuck into what looked like a sock pulled on over the top wide part.  

I held it carefully before me. I looked at the “sock”, “Is this what I think it is?” I murmured.

“It’s a nylon” she explained brightly, “you need it otherwise the clay sticks to the wood and that would be a problem!” she explained matter of factly.

I checked to see if anyone was nearby. Of course this made complete sense to her but, you see I’m a guy! Slapping a spaceship silly with a piece of wood was one thing, but now I’d be slapping that thing (loudly, very loudly) drawing everyone’s attention from miles around and they’d be coming, artists from all their cubicles everywhere in the city, to see where that noise was coming from, curious about what I was doing, and there would be that nylon flapping and waving around, back and forth, announcing it’s presence like a flag. Me and this nylon sock! It seemed very unmanly to me...but what could I use instead? I had no idea. My own socks would leave fuzz. All other solutions seemed to melt away as useless. I was doomed.

I thanked her profusely. I made no reference to my conflict of masculine identity and kept saying to myself “I am comfortable in my own skin...”

I set up the spaceship on a foamy and began slapping, as quietly as possible. ”I am comfortable in my own skin ...” It became a mantra I mentally repeated in time to the slapping. Finally, it was done...It worked, I had a round ball.

The nylon is back with it’s female owner.

I will go about getting a wooden paddle, but about the nylon part...there has to be another option...mmmm.

^“ So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away”.

2 Samuel 10:4