Psalm 1:4
the surface area of sin
Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust, which the wind driveth from the face of the earth. (Psalm 1:4 DR)
When I was a pre-teen I loved to make paper airplanes, and I would experiment with many types of designs to try and get it to stay aloft as long as possible.
I happened upon a book of paper airplane building in the library and found a design that none of my friends ever made. They usually made the standard ones that are long and slim and nose dive immediately, but the one I found was wide and short.
It also had a tail, flaps and ailerons which allowed me to have *some* control over it, although it was still subject to the natural forces operating on it with no means of propulsion. Still, it was a great design, and on a slightly breezy day I could get it to stay aloft for quite some time.
And if there was a decent updraft, it could attain (for a paper airplane) a pretty decent altitude. I like to think I was the envy of my friends, but I have no doubt I’m the only one who cared.
Like paper airplanes, we are often blown about by the winds of temptation which can range anywhere from a light breeze to a raging tempest. Our fallen condition and natural frailty fit the similitude of the paper airplane well, carried about in such a fragile state.
Habitual sin can harden our will against God and can diminish our resistance to temptation. We should be like the sleek paper airplane which isn’t as affected by the wind and thus can be carried aloft on the updrafts of temptation. But the more we give in to sin the greater our surface area becomes, so to speak. My childhood paper airplanes could gain lift on the wind because they had a greater surface area, and in like manner our refusal to avoid temptation when we can or to capitulate to it habitually make it easier for temptation to carry us away.
St. Augustine notes that the wind which will carry us away is pride:
That his earth has reference to the inner man, and that man is cast forth thence by pride, may be particularly seen in that which is written, Why is earth and ashes proud? Because, in his life, he cast forth his bowels. (Sirach 10:9) For, whence he has been cast forth, he is not unreasonably said to have cast forth himself. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 1, 4.)
As we all have experienced, pride is a puffing up, an enlarging the surface areas of our own will and desires. And the more puffed up we become, the easier it is for the winds to carry us away.
The righteous man, on the other hand, is constantly on guard against puffing himself up:
On his guard against which he, who was inebriated by the richness of the house of the Lord, and drunken of the torrent stream of its pleasures, says, Let not the foot of pride come against me. (ibid.)
I was struck by St. Augustine’s mention of being puffed up with pride, and thus my mind immediately went to puffer fish. Because, why not? I thought it’d be interesting to have some puffer fish blown about by the wind in some way, although maybe I should have used paper airplanes…
At any rate, I found some nice photos of puffer fish and cut them out in Photoshop. Next I brough them into After Effects and did some basic animation with position and rotation, enough to be interesting but not enough to be distracting.
For the background I found a nice flow-y background that I thought would make a great simulation of a strong current or something like that which could carry the puffer fish along. I used LoopFlow on it to simulate the movement, and applied three separate instances of it on the same image to get bi-directional flows.
From there it was merely some color correction and finishing it up.
Enjoy.
Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust, which the wind driveth from the face of the earth. (Psalm 1:4 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: