By the time I hit the ripe old age of 22, both my parents were gone. Just me, my two younger sisters, and Barney – the dog who somehow bonded with my father when he showed up during my dad’s night watchman shift at Hill-Acme. There wasn’t much of a safety net in place. What we had was the sudden and non-negotiable requirement to grow up fast… and we did.
So, what does “Clay to Code” mean to me? It’s simple: you start with what you are, you turn it into what you can become, and you find a way to bridge the gap without losing your soul in the process.
Clay to Code is What I Am
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. - Gen 2:7
I didn’t always believe this, but I do now – down to the bone. According to scripture, God formed us out of clay – dust – and then animated that clay with His breath. If you strip away the “the humanity” – titles, the jobs, the bills, the stress, the memories, and the opinions other people project onto you, what’s left is this:
- Clay
- Code
And a soul that refuses to fit neatly into either category.
Biologically, we’re dust running a highly sophisticated genetic program. Spiritually, we’re eternal beings wearing temporary skin. And the space in between – where consciousness lives – is where the real story happens.
It’s What I Do
Every day I’m working with clay in one form or another. Sometimes it’s literal – trying to sculpt an artistic doohickey that makes sense only after you squint at it for five minutes. Sometimes it’s the clay of a slope next to the barn that keeps eroding no matter how many times I fix it. And sometimes it’s digital clay – the kind you shape with a keyboard, a database, a few thousand lines of logic, and the faint hope that computers will behave for once. They usually don’t.
In every case, I’m taking something raw, formless, uncooperative, and trying to make it do something useful. If that isn’t the human condition, I don’t know what is.
It’s How I Do It (Some of it, anyway)
(Some of it, anyway.)
I build things. I fix things. I wrestle with ideas, with material, with code, with plans that exist only half-formed until suddenly they don’t. I’ve worked with clay, wood, steel, pixels, electrons, databases, and the occasional stubborn boulder or deep-rooted bush. I’ve built structures, businesses, systems, and the kind of off-grid setup that convinces delivery drivers I might be preparing for the end times.
Clay to Code is the spectrum of my life – what I came from, what I work with, what I make, and the strange mix of dirt and logic that makes me who I am.