Resculpting presence

I am not really into the wordsmiths of persuasion out there who sum up what you need to do and what not to do in your life and get paid to come up with slogans, etc.  But recently I saw a quote which said, "You are the Michelangelo of your own life.  The David you are sculpting is you.  And you do it with your own thoughts."   The quote is cited to Dr. Joe Vitale, a promoter and public relations guy with a couple of doctorates also cited.   I do not plan to check his professional references but I do like this thought.

First, I love it because I was first awestruck when I was in Italy and met Mr. Michelangelo's work in person and fell in love with its power.   The idea of sculpting anything out of a rock of stone amazed me and then to be able to see flexed muscles, curls, bones in a hand, on and on caused me wonder and shock.   I kept wondering how long it would take to sculpt even a head of curls and an ear.   Sculpture takes talent and training but it also takes persistence and stick-to-it-ness to get it exactly right.

Vitale is right.   Most of us spend a lifetime perfecting (or rather, honing) our traits and our talents and our judgements and our integrity.   And a great deal of that re-sculpting has to do with learning to deal with the words that come out of our mouth and what is appropriate, necessary, becoming or kind.   God expects each of us to be his sculptured David on earth, his presence, on earth but most of us are not ready to be viewed in a public gallery for the world to see.

I'm still working on getting some weight off my sculpture and lassoing my tongue and my e-mail fingers!  Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me.   Whoever said that has problems of insensitivity!