A View from the Gingerbread House

Patty, my wife, and her friend Edith decided to enter a gingerbread house in the county fair, and roped me into candy architecture. The contest: Take a photo of a Victorian and recreate it in edible materials.

Some hundred hours later, a 2-story Victorian bake shop stood above a California cliff -- complete with waves, surfboard, sand bucket... And cakes in the windows. There is even wall paper inside the house (made of Japanese nori for making sushi -- not exactly candy, but edible!)

Making the house was a pleasure and a pain. So much of life has these dimensions juxtaposed. Attaching hundreds of shingles made from BlackJack gum left me bleary. However laughing with Patty and Edith made it bearable. The process -- the journey -- brought us joy and pride.

Perhaps the most intriguing window on this project is the creative challenges of “Eliminating Impossible” and “Renewing Vision.”

Eliminating Impossible. It’s not possible to recreate every detail of a Victorian mansion in gingerbread, right? We can’t have crashing waves made of candy, right? It’s crazy to make a tiny model of the gingerbread house inside the window of the gingerbread house, isn’t it? As soon as we begin to “impossiblize” we shut down the endless avenues of creativity.

Eliminating Impossible is about staying open, about checking the impulse to dismiss an idea simply because it’s challenging. After a 13 hour stint of decorating, Edith arrived the next day with a long “punch list” of tasks. I jumped in with, “And let’s make an umbrella on the beach too!” Edith’s first reaction was the “you’ve got to be kidding glare.” This is a normal reaction to stress and complexity.

Then Edith eliminated impossible -- she laughed and said, “Why not! Let’s just finish these other challenges first.” Eliminating Impossible requires noticing and managing your emotions, and a key is finding pleasure in defying the odds. I haven’t asked her, but I suspect Edith is gleeful about doing what others say can’t be done.

In daily life, Eliminating Impossible is as simple (and hard) as striking the word “can’t” from your vocabulary. Begin by noticing yourself say “impossible,” then notice yourself thinking it. Just today I was on the phone with Anabel (my boss) talking through a project. “I’d so like to send off the draft on Monday,” she says hopefully. My first reaction is to think, “Impossible!” I want to crawl under my desk and groan. This belief, this perception, colors the whole way I see the project and it looms large and daunting.

“Pashaw!” I think to myself, “This is not hard. Actually it’s fun!” And say, “OK! Let’s do it.” Eliminating Impossible might be an excuse for workaholism, but it certainly is a recipe for more satisfaction. You can always be right if you claim, “Impossible” and make it so. But that success is hollow and sad -- especially compared to the joy that comes when you make work into play.

Renewing Vision is about seeing the old in new ways. This is the essence of making a gingerbread bake shop. “How can we make those hundreds of dentals?” “Maybe Smints would work!” “Does someone have an idea for the fence along the cliff?” “Try these candy cigarettes -- that looks just right!”

From chairs made of Starbursts and gum with Tic Tac legs (because every bake shop needs tables and chairs inside), to the surf board made of taffy, the creative process is about seeing the familiar with fresh eyes.

Children can do this so well. Last week Max and I were walking on the beach. Like a gleefully broken record, he repeated the 3-year-old-mantra: “Look Daddy, Look!” He was constantly searching for the unusual in the every day (to him it’s not) and finding magic in the simplest moments. He looks at the world with fewer assumptions and with more wonder.

Hills of sand became mountains. Even garbage on the beach was an exciting conversation about taking care of the Earth. Abundant with curiosity, Maxie naturally and effortlessly renews vision. As a result, he sees more of the world.

Renewing Vision requires us to suspend certainty -- to give up “knowing the answer,” limiting the possibilities, in exchange for a fresh look.

Like Eliminating Impossible, this is an effort of suspending final judgment. Staying flexible, maintaining uncertainty, takes a delicious blend of courage and whimsy. How ready are you to look at the certainties in your life and ask, “What if there is more to this story?” How open are you to finding the marvelous in the mundane, to looking at the familiar landscape with new eyes?

I suspect more than anything else, these are emotional challenges. In our hurried lives, with the pressure to fit in, to succeed, to keep up, staying open feels dangerous. Unconventional thinking means we might get left behind, embarrassed, or get the short end of the stick. But the accepted answers are inadequate, and the conventional wisdom isn’t enough -- so we’ve got to find our way past impossibilities and see in new ways.

©2004 Joshua Freedman, All Rights Reserved.