Glass

Okay so I'm finally getting around to this. I don't know exactly why but I found this guy extremely interesting- not attractive or interesting like ooh i'd date him but just..interesting i guess so ok here goes

So while in Kansas visiting my grandparents we stopped by a glass blowing place outside of town. It was small, but filled with colorful glass in strange shapes and sizes. For example I saw a couple fish, some hearts, tall statues...etc. What was interesting to me was that when you first walk in, all you see are all these pieces of glass and you're like "oh that's pretty" but that's it. That's all I was thinking. "We came all the way out here to see this shit?" you know, something like that.

Then as you walk further into the store, there's a door that leads outside and out back is where all of this is made. On the day I went, they were letting visitors go out and watch the people make these glass art pieces. I wasn't particularly excited about this but I went anyway and kind of stood there and watched and at first they weren't doing much but I just kind of kept watching.

I realize this is kind of a tangent from what I meant to talk about but this was also interesting to me. They start out with this small piece of I guess glass that they put in the furnace and shape for a couple minutes, then they start adding to it. So this ball of glass keeps getting bigger and bigger until the person (yeah the guy) can barely hold it. So then there are two or three people propping this giant piece of hot glass on this kind of metal contraption while they hammer colorful sand to it and add more glass. So now it has all this color and it's starting to look pretty but the shape is just..round.

Then they keep adding to it and shaping it and then they begin to slowly change its shape, little by little until it's the shape they want. What was interesting to me was that the fish, the bowl, etc that I saw earlier started from this small piece of hot glass in a little garage with shitty country music playing in the background. It's hot, it's tiring and a lot of work but all we see is this pretty little glass accessory for our desk at home. We don't see all the hours that went into it, and we never will.

So it made me think about life, because let's face it I do that way too fkn often, and I started to think that with most things, the "finished product" is all that people pay attention to. Even in our lives, no one cares how much money you spent on an education or how long it took to get a degree, or the numerous sleepless nights spend studying for a final, or even the hard work you put into a relationship or something you're passionate about. People only care about what degree you earned, what job you're at, what you've supposedly "accomplished" in your life. But I think the real accomplishment is being able to say "Look at all I went through. I'm proud of it." and that is what amazed me so much about these glass blowers.

And then, if you think about it, it's like a perfect metaphor to our lives. We start out as a child, small and uninfluenced, and little by little we keep adding on experiences and interactions until we are shaped and formed into who we are. Everyone is going to see us on the outside but no one sees the internal changes that happen constantly throughout our lives.

Art is one of those things that to me is so under-appreciated, but means so much.