There’s one thing that really bugs me at Halloween time: the dreadful lack of anatomically-correct skulls.
As a forensic artist, I know skulls. I am getting to know them better every day. I know when a skull looks natural, and when it doesn’t. And sometimes, I just want to walk into a Spirit Halloween or a Walmart or somewhere and get a little plastic skull that, you know, looks like a skull. But, amidst the skulls with the evil expressions (if skulls could have expressions), the cutesy big-eyed skulls that look like they belonged to Speed Racer, and the ones where the artist or sculptor or whoever was just clocking time at their job and really didn’t care what it looked like, I can’t ever find a skull that looks like a skull.
I know what you’re thinking: ‘Lighten up. It’s Halloween. They’re not supposed to look real. There are more important problems.’
Well for me, I like realistic skulls. Skulls are what God built our faces on, and I like to have ones that look like what I work with. The world won’t end if there are no anatomically correct skulls, and no one else cares, but it did prompt me to make a skull rubber stamp. I am using it for greeting cards and other graphics.
There are other things that I like to complain about:
- The lack of tall-length clothing. Whenever I’m in a store and I see a woman as tall as or taller than me, I ask her where she gets her clothes. Especially her jeans. Those suckers are hard to find, though I do find them. I’m not telling you where, because I don’t want my supply depleted. [Side note: try getting tall clothes in India. Not an easy feat.]
- The lack of clean romantic fiction. It seems shameful to say in this world (a fact which is shameful in itself), but I just want fiction that is well-written without the rated-x writing. I think writers throw that in to hide their lack of ability. Kind of like dumping sugar into really bad coffee. The bad taste doesn’t hide for long.
- The lack of comfortable shoes that are also stylish. I know…back to fashion. But seriously: why does fashion hurt sometimes?
- The fact that some tv’s speakers are in the back. I have to put a pizza box back there to get the sound to shoot back out at me.
There’s more, but I’m sure you’re as tired of reading my complaints as I am of writing them. But guess what? As I complain, I also invent.
The skulls bothered me, so I created one (see above drawing). It’s being made into a rubber stamp as we speak.
Number 1, I want to fix, but it will take time: I’m not a seamstress. But I can find one! And, there are tall patterns. And, I know patternmakers. And, there are other people who struggle with finding tall clothes. It’s the same with Number 3, the shoes. I’ve already started inventing/designing them, though that one may be a little further out to come to fruition, unless I can get on Shark Tank.
For Number 2, I’ve written four first drafts of four different clean romantic suspense novels. Look for the first one in about a year, once it’s all edited!
Number 4, with the tv speakers, a rabbi on Shark Tank actually invented a device somewhat like my pizza boxes, and got a deal with a few of the Sharks, so I missed out on that one.
What is your complaint, problem or struggle? Do you have a hack for it? God didn’t just give us our brains to fill our skulls, but among other things, to solve problems. More importantly, He wants us to help other people.
Next time you have a problem with a product, the way a company does something, anything you can think of, turn it around. Do something to fix it. Have someone else help you. Do something to help someone else. I believe it’s not just about making things work better, but about having people in our lives we can help, grow with and care for.
And this is the best time of all for us to care about each other!
‘Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.’ Galatians 6:2
