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[View and get the free teaching resources for this video here.]
About 15 years ago, Ikea released a series of commercials about “a lamp”. They were silent and I chanced upon them in an old playlist of mine. It hit me that I could cut, snip, paste, splice, add, remix, extend and come up with something for teachers to use. The result is the above.
I created a text for the final edited video. Ended it with a Whitman quote that I keep close to my chest.
It’s a beautiful message - reuse. It’s been on my mind the last few years, our overconsumption, our culture of too much. But there are also other messages in the story of the Lamp - personal messages of renewal, striving, consciousness of things … You find your own message.
The video creation also reminded me of the power of story retelling. Great narratives need reinventing be they Moses parting the seas or be they The 3 Pigs. Each time a creator, an artist, a writer retells - they are acting in the perrenial volition of our souls. Renewing a story and creating meaning for a newer time.
Enjoy.
The Lamp
I had a good life.
Then, one day, somebody pulled out my plug.
I was left on the side of the street like a piece of trash.
And after all I had done for them!
Now, forgotten. Of no use. Replaced.
I’d look up at my old glory and feel dejected.
My light was almost out. My end near.
Yet, somehow, I found the will to survive.
“Many of you feel bad for this lamp. That’s ‘cuz you’re crazy. It has no feelings. The new one is much better.”
My story should have ended here.
But fortune smiles on those of good faith and who endure.
At death’s doors I was given a second chance.
An angel arrived and swept me up in her arms.
She carried me home and with a little tender loving care I began to shine like my old self again.
Bringing light into this world. Being of use. Doing what I was put here on earth to do.
Giving light where there is dark.
Remain steadfast my friends. You too can shine again. Stay in the game.
“Many of you feel happy for this lamp. That’s not crazy. Reusing things is much better.”
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.”
A sort of remix manifesto …
The Lamp