Filling Your Own Mold

I once went to an art exhibit in Grand Rapids that featured work from the sculpture Rodin.  All I knew about him at the time was that he had sculpted. "The Thinker", a large bronze stature sitting in front of the Detroit Institute of Arts.  When we got there they said that there were several original Rodins, but many of them were this same statue.  Most were smaller.  Some much smaller.  It didn't make sense.  How could they all be originals?

It seems that the sculptor makes the original image from clay.  Then it is encased in plaster, so a mold is made.  The mold is removed and used to cast multiple versions of the statue, all of which are considered original.  This is true even if it is done years later, even if the original artist is dead.   So if there would only be one casting from the mold, only one original, when the artist got done, they broke the mold.  Hence the expression.

At the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC there is a bronze casting of Thomas Jefferson.  It is another celebrated piece of art.  What if we tried to force the Jefferson statue into Rodin's mold for the Thinker?  It wouldn't fit,  No matter how hard we tried it wouldn't work.  They are both works of art, but different.  We are like that.

Society has a certain mold or expectation that it tries to squeeze each of us into.  But it never quite fits.  

I guess now that I think about it, society doesn't really have a mold for us, but a caricature.  An exaggerated view of who we are and what we do.  They see us one way, but there is a lot more inside waiting to come out.  If you are a teacher, you must be like this.  If you are a builder you must be like this, if you are an accountant you must be like this.  If you are a Christian you must be like this.  Fill in the blank.

   

The trick is being true to the image and the purpose that God has for us.  We can't try to fit the mold or fulfill the caricature that the world has set for us.  It never works.