Snarf

There are assignments at my house. I’m not just talking about chores and stuff like that, but also assignments based on when situations arise. For example, if I shoot a rodent (you know, rabid raccoons, groundhogs destroying my garden, or opossums that threaten our national security) then it’s my sons job to scoop that sucker up and do something with it. Well my wife and I have assignments when it comes to helping our kids with their school assignments. Research projects and reports are her area of expertise, and I handle projects that require any type of construction or design.

So my kid is in this school program where he had a project based in inventions and engineering. Each student had to come up with a way to pop a balloon using the energy from a mousetrap to set of a chain of at least 3 events that leads to the balloon popping. Of course this falls under my assignment category. So we sit down and sketch out an idea; a system of pulleys and ramps all leading up to a fan elevating a balloon to a sharp object that will pop it. Well, if you know me, you know that one of my mottoes is “Go big or go home!” When it comes to building things I’m a little like Tim the Tool Man Taylor (google it). I once built a doghouse with an automatic dog feeder and waterer built right into the wall. I once built an entertainment center that takes 4 grown men to move. Go big or go home!

So of course I have to apply my principle to this project. So we buy some wood and glue and screws and nails and we get to work. I break out the belt sander and jig saw and drill and turn the dining room table into a workbench. The idea was to hook a string to the mouse trap and when the mousetrap was tripped, the string would be wrapped around a dowel rod that would then spin a pulley with another string hooked on it. Then that string would be hooked up to another pulley and the pulleys would lift a “basket” that held a metal ball in it. Then the metal ball would fall out of the basket onto a ramp system. When it got to the bottom of the last ramp, it would hit a light switch which would turn on a fan. Then the fan would blow the balloon up, where sharp objects would pop it! Sounds simple, right? Well maybe not simple, but the ideas were solid.

The problem is that it didn’t work out exactly like we had planned. For starters, the “basket” had to be just the right weight, or the pulley wouldn’t lift it. Then the ramps we made ended up vaulting the ball off onto the floor. One thing after another, we had to adjust to make it work. It took a lot of hours getting it set up, but we finally had it to where the mousetrap would turn the pulley and lift the ball and the ball would go down the ramps and turn on the light switch. So we installed the key item to our buster…the fan. We got it all hooked up and gathered the family for the “maiden voyage.” My son tripped the mousetrap and we watched with great excitement as the basket with the ball ascended to the top of the contraption. We held our breath as the ball made the transfer to the ramps, and our hearts started pounding as the ball fell off the ramp toward the switch. But then something amazing happened…it didn’t work. Oh, the fan worked ok, but it just wouldn’t push the balloon high enough to be popped. Back to the drawing board.

We figured out that if we put a trash bag over the fan, it would inflate the bag and that might push the balloon up high enough to pop. So we took it all apart, and put it back together again. This time, it worked! Now all we had to do is paint it. So we took it all apart and sprayed it down with spray paint, let it dry and put it back together. The problem was that the paint changed everything! The basket was now too heavy, the pulleys wouldn’t spin as freely, and the “poppers” weren’t nearly as sharp. So guess what, back to the drawing board.

Well today was the day. We took “Beard’s Buster” into my boy’s class and set it up. In front of parents and students, my son set up the contraption that took so long to struggle through to make work. He put the balloon in and released the mousetrap, the ball went up, the ball went down, the switch was hit, the bag filled with air, and POP went the balloon! Everybody clapped and oohed and aahed, and my son tried to hide his smile. The project was a success, and I was so proud!

The funny thing is, if we wouldn’t have had all the problems we had, the result wouldn’t have been nearly as exciting or satisfying. We knew we had the power in the mousetrap to pop the balloon, we just had to try over and over again until we got it right; we had to push through failures to get to success. Maybe that’s what James meant when he said “Be happy when life sucks” (Chris Beard paraphrase version, check out the real version here ) The reality is that the stuff we go through makes the end result so much sweeter. Sure, we know that God has the power (like a mousetrap) to take us to our goal (like popping a balloon). But the thing is, God doesn’t want us to just succeed, he wants us to learn and grow in the process. That’s where the troubles and trials come in. You just have to keep on working and trying until your balloon finally pops!

That’s about it for now kiddos. I love you guys, get outta here.

Christopher Bill