Sunday, March 4, 2018

Why I am Thankful The I Finally Accepted a Challenging Task

I work in the mailroom and among other things take general care of the facility. On the wall in our training room are portraits of all the former Executive Directors of our organization for the last 120 years. They are photos or old images lifted from archives. Each one is matted in a frame with glass and on the mat board of each one is where the name and dates of service.

All except one.

NO ONE KNOWS WHY
For reasons unknown to me, one did not have a name or date on the mat below the image. It must have been a later addition to the wall. Some months ago the chief operating officer asked me to use my artistic skill to do some calligraphy for the name, title, and dates on that picture. I appreciate the confidence he had in me but it was the confidence I did not share. I know a little about calligraphy but not enough to match the style and accent of the person who did the others. If it wasn't perfect it would embarrass my department. It would be interpreted badly as if someone was being disrespectful. Visitors would ask questions. The pressure was on.

STALLING
Over the past few months, I have been stalling saying I needed to practice my italic font so it would not look too out of place from the others. I practice and studied the style of the others but still did not feel confident that I could do it without messing it all up. I would look at the picture and say, "Lord help me, help me to do this thing in a good way."

IT CAN'T BE DONE
I was hoping everybody had forgotten about it but the other day the boss asked me again to write the information on the picture's mat board. I reluctantly got the picture down and another to use as a model and took them to the work area and laid them on a workbench.  When I disassembled the frame, glass, and mat I found out why it was not done before like the others. This mat was heavily textured like canvas. It was the wrong paper for pen work, if I tried to write on it the result would have been spotty and look rough and run. This was bad. There was no way anyone could do calligraphy on that surface.

A NEW SOLUTION
I got an idea. The computer has lots of fonts and our office printer has the ability to generate almost any color.  It was actually easy to find a flowery font with a flourish like calligraphy used on the other pictures. When I changed the settings to bold and changed the size it was a perfect match to the others. The hard part was the grey color of the background. I tried dozens of variations and finally came up with a match, a violet grey. I printed it out on card stock and cut everything to shape.  Once it was slipped into the frame over the mat board it looked better than the others. When I hung it on the wall with the rest of them you could not tell the difference between the computer-generated script I created and the hand-drawn letters of the others.

I am so glad that I do not have to worry about it anymore. I am thankful it worked out so well  I am not good with computers but I am thankful that God has given me the opportunity to learn how to do these things. I believe God helped me to do it. I know I must continue to rely on him daily.


If you or someone you know needs encouragement then order a copy of my book, BEYOND THESE DARK LANDS ARE EDGES OF JOY, Words of comfort and hope. Poems by A.E. Dozat, you will be glad you did.


© Adron 3/4/18