Day 173: Do you respect what you have?

Day 173.  If you know me well then you know I’ve been driving the same red truck for the last 18 years.  This truck has pretty much been with me through all the big stuff in life—marriage, divorce, diets, company formations, company sales, good times, bad times, success, failure, road trips to Vegas—you name it, Red has gotten me there.  I’m crazy about this truck.  Now, Red is getting old—really old.  So old that some day in the not so distant future, she’s going to have to be put out to pasture or just put down period.  When I moved into the house I live in now—going on 8 years ago this coming December—Red got parked on the street because, bless her heart, she’s got a few oil leaks.  At the old apartment I lived in she was always in her very own garage—she had shelter and privacy.  The years out in the elements have not been terribly kind to Red.  The top of the dashboard is literally splitting apart in two different places.  This must be from the constant and intense sun and heat boring through the window.  How could I not have gotten one of those sunshade things years ago?  That’s bad but the worst part is, she’s always parked right by a sprinkler so one side of her is constantly covered in calcium deposits.  Screenwriter Monica commented once that, “it looks like you’ve been to a rave in the desert.”  I’ve never been to a rave in the desert so I’m not sure what that means but it sounds cooler than calcium deposits.

Still truckin'!

Where am I going with all this?  Well, I’ve realized through thinking outside the box inside the box to create from what I have, that in order to “create from what I have” I need to actually respect what I have to create from—I have to take care of it.  And that includes old Red.  I’ve been washing Red lately, going out at 5:30am to wipe her down from the sprinklers to keep more calcium deposits from drying on her and, most of all, I’ve been thankful that I have her to create from in the first place.  This morning, while washing Red in the driveway, I understood that by respecting what I already have to create from, it empowers me and expands my creating potential.

Oh and by the way, Red is featured in one of the three screenplays on the slate.  She’s going to be a star!  How’s that for some R-E-S-P-E-C-T?

Until tomorrow, create from what you have…and respect it.

Kelli Joan Bennett is a filmmaker, actress, writer, entrepreneur, advocate for creative thinking and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Think Outside The Box Inside The Box Media.

Follow @FromWhatYouHave