Article April 14, 1980 ISSUE

Who's in charge here?

BRIAN D. WRIGHT

One of the most comical but frustrating experiences I've ever had is being outwitted by an inanimate lump of mud. But I learned a spiritual lesson out of it. When I began my education as a potter, I was amazed at how much stubborn resistance a little clay seemed to exert against my attempts to form it on a potter's wheel. As it turned, the clay jerked my hands back and forth or collapsed, unexpectedly. Clay in the hands of a skilled potter, though, seemed so much more cooperative, even totally subservient. It wasn't hard to see that the difference wasn't in the clay but in the potters.

One day a friend told me, "Don't watch what the clay is doing, watch your hands! Hold them steady, and the clay will be under control." I did, and slowly the clay became submissive and obedient.

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