Ron Popeil does it.
Las Vegas did it.
Stacy and Clinton help people do it.
Billy Mays doesn’t do it, but he knows a lot of people who do.
The Republic party needs to do it.
All of us at McKinney do it every day.
I’m talking about reinvention.
Where invention solves problems by adding, re-invention solves them by dividing, observing, reconfiguring, shaping, polishing, and expanding.
In an article called, “Why Inventing Matters” on Online SPIN, the author, Max Kalehoff, wrote “we’ve made a mess of this world. We need to invent the green way, the sustainable way, to live on this planet.”
He’s wrong. We need to reinvent it. We’re doing this already.
We turn cow dung into renewable energy. 7,500 heads of cattle produce a million watts of electricity by doing nothing more than being cows.
We ensure our own digestive regularity by swallowing what use to be a boring and oddly-flavored staple—yogurt. It’s amazing what a little culture can do.
We can wield chopsticks like a pro thanks to “Beginners Chopsticks”. Basically, they’re clothespins (remember those?) with a chopstick taped to each end. Brilliant.
We can read about Jane Austen’s rendezvous with the undead in “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” Thanks to an expired copyright, this classic romance now features ultraviolent zombie mayhem!
If we’re in Durham, we can get raw material for our next re-invention at the Scrap Exchange. (220 Foster Street, Durham, NC 27701)
This non-profit “creative re-use center” is filled to the brim with industrial discards with a use just waiting to be discovered. I once made earring holders by putting chicken wire in some empty frames. The last time I went I was convinced I could do something incredible with 100 test tubes, a bolt of tapestry fabric, wrought iron latticework and the letter Q from a Broadway marquee.
Any ideas?