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Used Tea Bags

Creating things of beauty from what would otherwise be thrown in trash is wonderful for many reasons. One of them being that it makes the viewer consider (in this case a used tea bag) in completely different light. See potential manifested where they may have thought none existed. I could not help correlating this to believing in people who look up to us and count on us. 

When an adult in a position of authority or influence in a child's life sees a hidden, buried spark in them and takes the time to kindle it, that act is not so different than creating art on used tea bags. Specially when that child is viewed as a lost cause and a failure by most others. That one person's faith makes all the difference, it creates meaning out of nothingness. 

I had a teacher in eight grade Mrs. G who was that person to a couple of kids I went to school with. They were in the discard pile and no one had much hopes for them including their own parents. But Mrs. G saw something and she told them they were much better than they imagined. Against the tide, she pushed them gently in the direction of dreams they had not yet seen. Today they are both doing very well for themselves. They were like these tea bags brought to life by Mrs. G's imagination of who they might be.

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