Cleverness
“the ability to understand and learn quickly and easily”
My dad was clever. He was a carpenter … for decades. And with that he learned a lot…he also learned how to be clever. He used to say he could walk into a room and tell you exactly how much drywall he needed for any or all of the walls. Any issue that came up or anything he was trying to build (big or small), he could easily assess what needed to be done and how best to make use of whatever materials he had around him.
He once built this “camper-like” structure to go on top of our 1968 Chrysler station wagon (a boxy, boat-like vehicle—google it). He put the tail gate down and the “thing” would fit on top of it and up over the full length of the car top. It had a jalocy-windowed backdoor and the whole thing was covered with galvanized aluminum. I wish I had a photo to share with you. It was quite the site to see. Had there been social media back then, it would definitely be something that would have been posted by others who saw it.
He built the house we lived in back in 1952. Since then he’s made all kinds of clever updates to it…not all of it up to code. When it came time to sell the house, I wanted to have an inspector come in so we could tell potential buyers all of the “clever” things he had done to the house over the years…to which my brothers and our realtor “NO! You don’t want to do that. We’ll tell them that the house needs improvements.” How clever. To this day I still think about the buyer, also a carpenter, and how he’s enjoying finding all of dad’s “easter eggs”.
I’d like to think I inherited some of his cleverness. I do find myself “cleverly” fixing things…although I’d like to think that I’m being creative. And as luck would have it, I married a man who’s a fixer. His name is Gerry and anytime he’s doing his “fixer” thing, I tell our dog “there goes daddy, gerryrigging again”.
How about you? Is cleverness a core value for you?
BTW…here’s what it looked like to begin with …
joyfully,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
*ToGAs: Team of Guides and Angels
inspiring and encouraging creativity, curiosity, and play through the art of mandalas
About the 2024 Mandalas of the Day
Each day I will create and post a mandala inspired by one of 366 “value” words chosen randomly. The objective being to discover for myself which ones would best represent my core values…and by doing so, I hope it inspires you to determine your own.
Mandala of the Day 