2-26-09

Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes; mine is a triangle

I had a column for the paper all worked out in my head about this past weekend.
Friday night, after work, I left for a weekend with my longtime friend Matt Brozey who lives in Myrtle Beach.
This was a weekend that had been in the making for about 2 months. We had a full weekend planned out to utilize every hour to its fullest.
We were to shoot pool on Friday night, ride motorcycles and four-wheelers at an ATV park all day Saturday and see a live boxing match Saturday night.
Sunday, I was served a great blueberry pancake breakfast, packed my bags, and started back home.
That story was trumped by a surprise from my son.
On the way out of North Myrtle Beach, I stopped at a large gift shop to find a little surprise for my two children.
Whenever I travel somewhere I try to bring home a gift for them. I bribe my son into being a good boy for Mommy by telling him that, “If you take care of Nash and Mommy and go to bed on time, I will bring home something special for you.”
This seems to work and every time I call home to check on the family, Ethan asks, “Whad’ja get me, Daddy?”
As always, he was a wonderful boy for Leigh and helped out with turning out the lights at night and reminding Mommy to turn on the alarm before they went to bed.
So I got him a present. I was going to get him one anyway.
As I pulled under the carport, I was getting excited to open the door and hear the kids yell, “DADDY.”
I love that.
I asked Ethan to give me a report on the weekend and quizzed him on whether he did his “man-of-the-house” duties like I asked.
He informed my that he did everything and even ate all of his dinner and played with his sister.
“Good job son, I am proud of you,” I commended him.
“Whad’ja get me, Daddy?” Ethan quickly asked.
I gave him his surprises and he was excited and proud that he had done a good job.
All of the sudden he dropped everything and looked at me and smiled.
“I have a surprise for you, Daddy. I made you something.”
He ran back to his room and after some shuffling of papers and moving of some toys, he came running back down the hallway yelling, “Close your eyes, Daddy.”
I closed them and held out my hands.
Something that was heaver than one piece of paper was in my hands.
“Open them.” Ethan shouted while doing a quick jump in the air from the balls of his feet.
In my hands was a triangular shaped piece of tan construction paper. Crayon-drawn shapes were adorning the front and they were all meticulously laid out and colored in the lines.
“Why thank you, Bud. This is a great picture.”
“It’s a hat, Daddy. It’s a Creativity Hat. Put it on.”
Opening up the triangle-shaped construction paper “hat”, he continued, “When you have a hard time thinking of something to draw or color, you can put the hat on and it helps you think. You can take it to work and wear it.”
I wore the hat all night. We played video games and he kept telling me that the hat was making me think better and that is why we were winning.
I am going to take it to work. When ever I have a hard time designing an ad or laying out the paper, I am going to put it on. It might even help me come up with a subject for a column.
After all, it helped us win at Mario Kart.
Bryan Pinkey can be found under the “Hat of Creativity” or at bpinkey@nccox.com and now all of his stories are archived at jbryanpinkey.blogspot.com.