Man crush
Does creativity require resistance? I think so. Would I write anything if it lacked any challenge? Probably not. But if I wrote this in Portuguese, well, I know only 10 words in that beautiful language, and that would provide too much resistance. Shut down.
I remember at film school, our best shorts were always those that had tight restrictions. The Bolex wind-up camera limited us to a 30-second shot. Our task could look like... ‘In 2 minutes, 2 locations and 2 actors, tell a RED themed story’. The limitations were enough to spark our creativity, never so restrictive that we threw in the towel. I was thinking about this as I watched two unbelievably creative and capable men, who are fixing my gutters and roof.
I have fumbled through and fixed many quandaries in this material world of ours, but cutting back the roof joists and inserting flashing on a high ladder was not happening. Huge resistance over here. Portuguese. But then came the winter rains and, tormented by the drip drip of a mysterious roof leak into a strategically placed breakfast bowl, I reached out for help. .
Introducing the phenomenal Yes-I-Can Alex.
I have a pile of.. more or less.. useful materials. Some are left over from other jobs and retrieved from the corners of the basement. Others hide in plain sight under the Costco tent from my days at the lumber yard when I scavenged left overs for an unknown future. For Alexi and Geraldo, these materials are the ‘tight restrictions’ that drive their imagination. They flip stuff over, hum and haw, look up at the sad and drooping roof edges, sip their coffee and get creative.
5 flashing strips, 4 gutters, 3 cups of coffee, 2 magnificent men, one pile of salvaged building materials.
Now, during the week Alex and Geraldo partner as house framers and come Saturday night, they have their mariachi music gig at a tavern in Seattle. When they turn up here early on Sunday morning (while my household is still sound asleep), I excitedly slip into my role as cook, gofer and credit card. Strong coffee and breakfast for us all.
When he was a farm boy in Mexico, on days when he and his brothers were not needed for anything useful, Alex’s father would have them dig holes. ‘For a future construction’ he would tell them. But by the next idle day, the holes were mysteriously filled, ready to be dug again. So the brothers grew up believing that work has an intrinsic value, beyond the outcome.
They power up the compressor, wail up the boombox and race into action. And although my part in the Yes-I-Can Alex team is to dash out to Home Depot for bits and bobs and clean up the debris drifting down from up high, there are few times at work of any sort that I feel more gratified.
Here I am, cheering these two joyful creatives on as they dexterously button up the edges of my home, and voicing, with some mild embarrassment, my man crush is in full bloom.
