Comes now the story of John.
John was born with a creative mind. As a child, people tended to look at him funny as he was always making weird, abstract drawings or molding clay into odd shapes without a discernible form. Despite all of the awkward looks, John did not care and created his eccentric art.
John grew up to become an artist in his own peculiar way. He did not paint. He did not sculpt. He did not write music. John’s outlet for his creativity was crafting tools, particularly hammers.
While it might not seem like there is much opportunity to express creativity in building a hammer, John spent years in his adolescence trying to hone his skills as a designer.
John went to get an education in engineering. It was hard work, academically, but the process of finding solutions to make things work inspired him. With his knowledge of mechanical engineering and the essence of form and function, John pursued his career as a hammer designer with a tool manufacturer.
He wanted to make the most efficient hammer while also making it, in some sense, an elegant tool. In one design he used a star shaped transition from the handle to the head. He also applied other implements to the opposite end of the hammer like a claw or a hatchet. Other designers did this too of course. Many times John would take other designs and give it his own take.
But whenever John pitched one of his new designs to his company, they would be rejected. He was often told his idea was too similar to others or that his design just wasn’t exciting enough to warrant a mass production. John’s concepts were interesting but not compelling, they said to him.
John was allowed to stay with the company because he would work on other designers’ schemes and suggest small tweaks to improve them. The company valued his insight but not his vision.
The sun visited John many times and implored him to quit hammer design and to work on something else. Clearly people did not appreciate his efforts and his creative expression. Whatever the reason may be, John’s take on the hammer wasn’t inspiring and he should do something else with his life, the sun told him. Perhaps John should even consider doing something else outside of artistic expression entirely, the sun suggested.
John didn’t listen. By then he was too old to try something new. He continued to work on hammers the rest of his professional life. He was tasked with making slight improvements to other designers’ works but he never once had any of his designs produced.
He retired eventually and spent his last few years of life realizing that he had committed the worst sin of his world: to be boring.