A Wealth of Talent

A Wealth of Talent

From Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Talent:

1a: a special often athletic, creative, or artistic aptitude
b: general intelligence or mental power : ABILITY

4 a: any of several ancient units of weight
b: a unit of value equal to the value of a talent of gold or silver

As life has unfolded before me there have been markers painting a variety of images and illuminating a variety of paths. Since age 5-6 one of  the illuminations has been Jesus Christ while another has been situations.

I grew up in a very poor household, of course, me and my brothers had no concept of “rich” or “poor” it was just how we lived. We always had food on the table, clean clothes and a very modest roof over our head. We grew up in a broken home my dad left when I was 4-5 years old. He made a few appearances during the early stages of my life, but had almost no influence. He did, however, teach me how not to treat women and I am very grateful for that lesson.

Having an idea of being an artist came at a very early age. I remember, quiet clearly, drawing lots of cars, trucks and “monsters” and doing my best to replicate what I was looking at. I did a lot of “tracing” of images and then colored them in. When I was a young adult, mid twenties, that was the first time that I broke out and began painting, writing and attempting to create “art”. Of course, there were any number of alcoholic drinks and variety of drugs being consumed which I thought would “open up creative channels” only to learn later that it was, in fact, closing any and all creative channels I was being afforded.

During these two stages of life I managed to have just a small amount of wealth to accompany any talent that I was attempting to nurture and grow into something real. The wealth was squandered and the talent kept morphing into something different.

During an 18 month period, in the early 1990’s in which I managed to be completely sober, not only did I manage to spend time studying a variety of religions and spiritual concepts, I also managed to begin a phase of artistic growth that would continue expanding for the next 20+ years. The wealth was gone but the talents afforded me were still intact and, seemingly, finding fresh soil to take root.

Now, we come to today and having the ability to review 50+ years of life one can see things at this stage they may not have seen, and probably would never understood, during an earlier stage of life. Having spent the better part of the past two weeks reading, reading and re-reading, while praying, discussing and reading more and more, the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, it seems what I am struggling with lies within me. It seems as if there is blockage in the form of my personal experiences and what the story is attempting to teach me. The title of this writing is “A Wealth of Talent” for a reason. The word “talent” has morphed over the centuries. At the time of Jesus Christ the word meant one thing and today, 2,000+ years later, it means something altogether different. When a person is attempting to understand something as subtle as a parable the words become paramount. The words, and context, are the story, they are the image, they are the very foundation of the teaching.

Having been stripped, more than once, of all wealth one has to look at the cause, the context and how it happened.

When a person uses their talents, in an attempt to create wealth, are they creating more talents or is the idea to create money? Talents and money (wealth) Wealth and talents – when someone threatens to take them from you how do you respond? When someone takes your meager wealth/talent and gives them to someone else what does that do to a person? When someone tells you that you, as a person, have no value as your talents/wealth are not yours and then explains that you will lose what little you have what does that do to a person?

Abuses heal, wounds close and fractures mend. Time makes them better, however, there is still evidence of what happened and the people involved are usually with you for a lifetime.