A Brick and a Blanket

The point I want to make with this entry is how it only takes a little bit of creativity to reveal the deepest roots of your personality.  Last summer my little brother and I challenge each other to think outside the box by holding a series of writing contests.  We soon discovered that it was next to impossible to choose a winner of these contests because it all depended on preference of style. 

For example, over the summer we read a book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, a book about the secrets to achieving success.  The author recommends a creativity experiment and tells the reader to “write down as many different uses you can think of for the following objects: 1. A brick 2. A blanket.”  My brother and I decided to take this challenge, and we instructed our mom to judge or responses based on both quantity and quality.

The following are some of the best uses for a blanket which my brother wrote.

1.       A BLANKET can be enchanted as a flying carpet and used to see the world—Just make sure you keep its batteries charged.

2.       A BLANKET can mute the oars of Paul Revere’s boat as he rows past the Summerset.

3.      A BLANKET can be ripped into squares, sewed into bags, filled with sand, and used as sand-bags when you are in the process of turning State Street into a river but the sand bag suppliers ran out.

4.       A BLANKET can be a chess board.  First, take black paint and paint a gigantic, white blanket with a checkerboard pattern.  Then go to the nearest dwarf mine (such as Doria, the Lonely Mountain, pre-developed Ordock, the place where the Seven Dwarves go every day, etc.) and get a dwarf king, a dwarf queen, two dwarf watchmen, two mounted dwarves, two dwarf wizards, and eight common dwarves.  Then go to the nearest goblin kingdom (such as Mount Gundabad, the mountains north of Madsen Land, Dungeons and Dragons, etc.) and corral eight generic goblins, a goblin king, a goblin queen, two goblin dragon riders, two goblin catapult crews, and two goblin wizards.  Arrange these diametrical armies on either side of the blanket, and wah-la!  Insta Chess!  (Warning: may lead to violence and open warfare)

5.       A BLANKET you can rend, take a piece thereof, and write upon it, “In memory of our God, our religion, our freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children,” fasten upon the end of a pole, and use to rouse a nation in defense of their liberties.

6.       A BLANKET can be sewed together with ten thousand other blankets to create the biggest blanket in the world.

7.       A BLANKET can be used to capture Barney.  Dig a pit, coat the walls and floor with tranquilizer fluid, cover it with a blanket, lay some greenery on top, lure Barney to the site, and then push him in.

8.       A BLANKET can aid in sending smoke-signals

9.       A BLANKET can mask one’s presence from a one-year old

10.   A BLANKET can help practice for calculating the area of rectangles

My brother had a total of 127 uses for a blanket on his list.  I had only 35.  However, I had a slightly different approach.  Instead of making a list, I made a brochure entitled, “Blanket for sale!”  On the cover of the brochure was a picture of Lucy (character from the Peanuts comic strip) with Linus’s blanket.  The brochure was written from Lucy’s perspective as she listed her reasons for why someone should buy the blanket and get it off her hands.  (She could just throw it away, but Lucy never passes up an opportunity to make a profit.)

1.  Do you need something to keep the dust off your piano?  Use this blanket as a cover.  (And if a certain piano-playing friend of mine is reading this, he should be informed that he would get a Favorite-Musician discount.)

2.  Do you struggle to come up with just the right costume for Halloween?   Dress as a ghost in the Charlie-Brown style by grabbing this blanket and going crazy with the scissors.

3.  Do you have anger management problems?  Pin this blanket onto your dart board.  (I’ve tried this, it really works.)

4.  Do you have sufficient material for making a kite?  This blanket can be cut into just the right shape.

5.  Do you have sufficient string for your kite (assuming you get it off the ground to begin with)?  Unravel this blanket.

6.   Do you worry that your pet moths are underfed?  Shred this blanket for them.

7.  Have you ever wondered about the durability of your paper shredder?  Fabric is the perfect testing material.

8.  Does your dog howl at night because he sleeps on the roof and he doesn’t have something to keep him sufficiently warm?  Use this blanket to cover your ears.

9.  Do you need psychiatric help?  Buy this blanket and then come see me.

After some deliberation, my mother declared me the winner because she liked how my work had a distinct voice, a subtle plot, and a list that was interwoven with inside jokes for devoted Peanuts fans.  If I had been the judge, however, I think I would have chosen my brother—for sheer brilliance and variety.  I could never have thought of 129 items even if I'd thought for a week.  The differences between our lists make sense when you take into account our different personalities.  My brother is more practical and systematic.  He’s going to grow to either be an engineer or a college English professor.  I, on the other hand, have a brain filled with emotion, dialogue, irony, corny jokes, and story-telling.  I’m going grow up to be either a super-mom or a basket-case.

When you think outside the box, everyone wins because you discover your true selves and marvel and everyone’s gifts.  If any of you decided to take this same brick and blanket challenge, I'm curious to hear some of your responses!