vincent

VINCENT VAN BRICKLAYER

A Short Commentary on Genius

By Izzy Ess of Essentialness

Bricklayers are a special group of artisans.  I heard that Winston Churchill was a bricklayer.  He would relax by laying bricks and by reputation, he was excellent.  I’ve watched bricklayers.  They are meticulous.  Some go slow and some go very fast.  At whatever speed they go, the good ones are obvious when you watch them.  An old bricklayer told me the following story:

An office building was designed by an architect who used a computer to make his blueprints.  He liked stone and glass bricks.  A stone can be chipped and shaped while a glass brick cannot.  His design of the two story first floor involved a serpentine shape to the front and side and a combination of glass and stone bricks.  Apparantly, several young bricklayers had been hired to lay the pre-shaped granite stones, in an artistic pattern with large glass preformed bricks.  Apparently, the young men failed to lay the stones and glass bricks in the serpentine pattern called for by the computer generated design.  Vince was called in, in desperation.  He worked for ten hours, straight.  He was able to duplicate the serpentine pattern exactly.  He called the architect who was impressed and offered Vince the job for the first two stories of the building.  Vince finished the job within the time allowed and received a large bonus plus a very substantial wage.  It was the first and only job he had for over twenty years.  At the time, he was 76.

How many of us have that kind of artistic expertise?  One can only imagine the mysticism surrounding the original masons who built the pyramids in Egypt and Peru.  Of course, they knew Pythagorus, or others like him who could judge and measure accurately the relationships to large and small stones and squared corners and rounded corners, arches and secret chambers.  It is amazing to realize they used the sun and stars to make designs, like Stonehenge and the other spots in Canada and elsewhere which can spot the Equinox or find Polaris.  Perhaps it’s a genetically determined talent.  Perhaps it’s the same creative genius that picks out Da Vinci or Van Gogh with special knowledges of colours and shapes, perspective and emotion.  How does a genius of English Literature describe in words an alternative proof to the Pythagorean Theory, such as the one he described in a brief paragraph in a short story, Young Archimedes?  It boggles the mind of us mere mortals…

THE END

© izzy sommers, md

Welland, Canada

July 27, 2013