Creativity: Anti-theft lunch bag

"Anti-Theft Lunch Bags are regular sandwich bags that have green splotches printed on both sides. After your sandwich is placed inside, no one will want to touch it."

Movie processor

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a movie about Joel and Clementine and actually we have the movie poster on our wall because it's Haircut's "favorite movie of all time." The movie makes you answer the question "if you could successfully erase painful memories, would you?" After a difficult relationship with Joel, Clementine decides to have a surgical procedure done to erase all memories of Joel from her mind for good by a company called Lacuna Inc.. Joel finds out about it and decides he's going to do the same thing only part way through the procedure he realizes that even though the relationship had problems he wanted to keep them because they were part of who he was. What happens from there is a crazy ride though the mind of writers Charlie Kaufman and Michael Gondry.

I've really been struck for the past year or so about what it means to be "in process." This movie makes me think about the importance of entire process of maturity and growth. If we had a choice we would all probably choose to not go through painful times in our lives. Heck, I have some memories I'd like to erase as well but those are the things that cause us to grow the most. The only thing worse than suffering is not learning from your painful experience. Anyway, I'm in the process of figuring out what being "in process" means for the things God has called me to and I invite you to do the same.

Writing a mini-saga

When a kid says "tell me a story" have you ever really considered what exactly are they are looking for? Facts? No, they want to be entertained and inspired. But story has the power to be memorable and to teach more than just facts. For the past year or so I've really been thinking about the concept of story. I have even thought about the primary way Jesus taught. He taught using parables. What are parables? In short they are stories. Some people are naturally great story tellers but I believe story is something we all can grow in.

One exercise in story is writing a mini-saga. Sounds funny but they are actually pretty interesting. A mini-saga has a beginning, middle and end just like a normal story but a mini-saga is exactly 50 words. No more, no less. A method for writing a mini-saga is write or find a story and begin removing all words that are not absolutely necessary. Begin reconstructing your sentences to so you end up with exactly 50 words. Try it and grow in learning the power of story. Feel free to share your mini-saga on the web site too.

Go here for more on mini-saga examples from people around the world.