Work: Creative Summons
And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every [wild] beast and living creature of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was its name. Gen 2.15,17 (AMP)
That first assignment for man was work. Work consisted of tasks of preparation. Anyone who has tended a garden understands that in order to obtain its fruits, the product of the garden, the work of preparation begins the process. That work is of a kind that would be ordinarily understood as unpleasant and not particularly easy. The lack of ease present in that first assignment was, perhaps, precisely the point. Man was to obtain understanding.
“Modern identities are more fluid than the … divisions of the past. Fluid can mean adaptable. But in another train of associations, fluid also implies ease; fluid motion requires that there be no impediments. When things are made easy for us … we become weak; … we lack understanding of what we are doing.” Sennett (1998)
After the period of work came the creative summons: He brought the living creatures to Adam, and whatever Adam called each living creature that was its name.
So it is for us. We are summoned to work. These tasks are not only difficult (and perhaps dangerous now that we find ourselves on the Jericho Road), but we cannot use methods that disclaim creativity, or introduce ease, and allow us to engage only in a superficial manner.
We have in our hands a creative summons.
Thomas V. Jahl, Headmaster, Cono Christian School
Notes:
Richard Sennett, The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism, Norton (1998)