We Are the Clay

"Yet you, Lord, are our Father.

We are the clay, you are the potter;

we are all the work of your hand."

--Isaiah 64:8

"No man ever wetted clay and then left it, 

as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune."

--Plutarch

Watching a true potter (or perhaps more aptly called a true artist) at work is a humbling experience. To see Chez Galip--also known as "the Turkish Einstein", for obvious reasons--take a formless mass of clay and effortlessly shape it into a beautifully-sculpted teapot in a matter of minutes is nothing short of awe-inspiring. 

His very manner while he manipulates the clay emanates his love for his work and for the art itself. Furthermore, he's a man with a grave presence, though his visage will seemingly unwittingly split into a joyful grin at only a slight provocation. 

I believe that at this point Galip was laughing at one of our attempts to guess one of his questions: how a certain pot had gotten its unique color. 

My favorite mannerism of his, though, is when he says "no". You must think it odd of me to say, but even the way this man casually says "no" is artful. It's a slow, nonchalant toss of the head with his eyes half-closed, making a light "tsk" noise with his tongue as his chin lifts proudly. Initially, it may seem pompous, even arrogant, but, after a few of these, you come to realize that this individual, decked out in his perpetually clay-caked pants is truly genuine and lighthearted, eager to share his love with anyone and everyone.

"I have but shadowed forth my intense longing to lose myself

in the Eternal and become merely a lump of clay in the Potter's divine hands

so that my service may become more certain because

uninterrupted by the baser self in me."

--Mahatma Gandhi

"The reproduction of mankind is a great marvel and mystery. 

Had God consulted me in the matter, I should have advised him 

to continue the generation of the species by fashioning them out of clay."

--Martin Luther