speaking of opposites...

this is my infamous pot. i built it from clay coils in ceramics class and i can tell you now that there's just about nothing i hate worse (besides the sound of people chewing, being offered popcorn in a movie after i've declined the nasty crap every single movie before, the sound of casserole (period), tennis, name jokes (i.e. it was a JOY meeting you!), when people end a comment to me with my name, my inability to tan - ok actually there are a lot of things i hate worse) than tediously building a clay pot from coils. i started over three times, after i had built about six inches up (an eternity in the world of clay).

if you are a ceramics artist, my apologies - but i seriously cannot believe how much i loathe this three hour/two times a week class. i hadn't been able to figure out if this was due to my teacher's obnoxious cackle, her threatening to fail me if i didn't go to class on a saturday from 9-5 so she could go on vacation, or the splitting that happens to each one of my fingernails because of the nastiness of my cheap clay...

until i realized today: i really, really hate this class because i'm not good at it. the same reason i hate math, science, and tennis. but i really want to know - what came first? not liking these subjects, or not being able to "get" them?

it makes me wonder how many us give up on people because we don't like them, or we don't get them. and really - do either one of those reasons make it right? i've done it. i do it. sometimes i just don't like people. i don't like their attitude. i don't like the way they come off... and sometimes i just don't understand people. i don't get what they're about or why they do stuff like they do.

i don't have kids yet, but i think it will (because chances are it will) really frustrate me when other kids write off my kids because of something stupid like thinking they are too poor or too rich; too fat or too skinny; or (Lord willing) black.

i bet you the heart of God aches when all of his kids are writing each other off over trivial matters of the here and now. and after all he's done for me - where do i get off making God hurt?

so maybe i'll just stop complaining when i think about ceramics. but no promises.

this is what my pot was supposed to look like. no lies.