The Burden of Being Dirt

“Remember now that Thou has made me as clay and wouldst Thou turn me into dust again?”  Job 10:9

I have worked with clay for years.  It is the most sincere material I have ever used.  It is what it is, dirt, unpretentious.  It is this quality more than any other that is its most meaningful.  Pretension is such a plague on humans, a burden too heavy to bear.  This verse offers us a state of being that is easy, like a yoke offered us.  It allows us to see ourselves simply as we are, a human, but loaded with potential.  That is what I love most about clay, its simplicity yet its boundless potential.  So many mediums are laden with angst and difficulty, like they need years of devotion to acquire moments of success.  Not clay.  Clay is dirt.  Dirt, of all things, is not burdensome.   

Dick Lehman's cup