I wanted to do a thing that would honor Levi.
In true ‘Craig-fashion’, it snowballed into a bigger thing…
I swiped these images from the Swatch website but it’s okay, AI does it too… winks
Levi and I share* a like for watches. When Swatch came out with the ‘MoonSwatch’ a few years ago, he got the Saturn and Pluto versions, and I got the Moon one. These are inexpensive plastic, (errr… “bio-ceramic”), replicas of the watches that many astronauts wore into space and on the moon.
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As Levi was finishing up his Master’s thesis last fall, I had the idea to get him a watch. I wanted to get him something nicer, something made out of metal, something to really mark the moment and celebrate his accomplishments. I had a watch in mind, (a Hamilton Khaki Field watch in bronze with a white dial), I imagined us taking him to dinner after his thesis defense. I’d slide the box across the table and say, “I’m proud of you, son.” But I hesitated knowing that his taste and mine often diverged. And for such an important moment, I wanted to make sure he got something he would love and wear for years to come. So I thought I would write him a nice note in a card that would include the line, “Let’s go shopping for a real watch when come home for Christmas.”
I thought to myself, it’s kind of lame to give him an ‘IOU’ on such an occasion. Then I had a brainstorm:
I’ll Give Him a Calculator Watch
as a kind of placeholder and as a fun joke…
I’ll get him a Casio Calculator Watch as a kind of placeholder. He’ll have something to open when we take him out to dinner, and it will be a fun joke. Plus, I knew he would actually wear it and enjoy the joke of it.
I ordered a navy blue one on Amazon. It arrived the day he died.
***
I thought I’d just put it in the closet and never wear it. But for some reason, I decided to take it with me when we flew to Fairbanks to receive Levi’s remains. While there, Kay Charlotte, Taylor, and I had dinner with two of Levi’s professors. Jill is his advisor, and James is someone Levi connected with quite a bit. We met at a Thai restaurant that is one of Levi’s favorites. I had a brainstorm:
What if we created a silly and kind of lame ‘scholarship’? What if we award this inexpensive calculator watch to a worthy student? What if instead of choosing someone who is the best at the math, that they choose someone who reflects the qualities we see in Levi…
They loved the idea, so I left the watch with them.
*******
A few weeks later, I thought to myself that it would be good if I wrote a letter to accompany the watch. That way the recipient would know more of the story and appreciate the silliness of it, but also the meaning behind it. So I worked on a letter.
***
After writing the letter, I thought." “Well, receiving this watch and getting this letter are kind of out of the blue. Maybe I ought to explain more about why we are giving a watch.” So I wrote something very similar to what you’ve just read above.
***
That got me to thinking more deeply about why watches are important to me. I’d read a post by a guy names Frank Chimero. He wrote about how we talk about time, that most of the terms are transactional, like we ‘make’ time, we ‘take’ time, we ‘spend’ time, etc. And this reminded me of my meditation on Psalm 90 from back in July. So after a little help from ChatGPT as my thesaurus, a kind of poem came out.
***
Then I thought, “If this is successful and meaningful once, maybe we do it more than once?” I mean, I’d spend another $30 on another calculator watch to continue to honor Levi’s life. I’d do that for as long as it is meaningful. And I guess, if we do it again, it’s quite likely the recipient will have never even met Levi. So I dug out the biography that our dear friend Andrea put together for Levi’s Remembrance Service.
***
A Booklet Happened
So now, I’ve got a number of pieces. There’s a letter. There’s an explanation. There’s a kind-of-poem. And now a bio. And then I thought of these:
I Carry a Pocket Notebook Everywhere
I have literally dozens of these things. They’re in every backpack and bag I own. They’re in drawers, on my desk. Everywhere.
I carry these little pocket notebooks everywhere. Field Notes are my favorite. And I remembered that Levi had quite a number of notebooks too. He liked to sketch out ideas and math concepts. He’d use them as a scratchpad for calculations. He once told me that physicists and mathematicians tend to keep their notebooks for a lifetime.
What if I made a little notebook to contain all these elements? What if I included extra pages to make it useful to the recipient? A little conversation with ChatGPT revealed that graph theorists, (Levi’s branch of math), prefer a dot grid with 5mm spacing…
Long story short, this happened:
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A Sticker Happened
Not long after that, I got an offer from Sticker Mule, my favorite sticker company: 50 3-inch round stickers for $29. So I thought, “The recipient ought to at least get a cool sticker for their water bottle, right?” And I got to work on a sticker.
I Love How These Turned Out
I’m a sucker for a sweet sticker!
***
Math + Faith Happened
The booklet eludes to Levi’s faith, but it didn’t really spell it out. So I thought, “What if the recipient received a small, one page invitation to explore faith like they’re exploring math?” I thought of Francis Schaeffer, C.S. Lewis, and Lee Strobel who are such thinking believers, who have spent their lives in inquiry and learning more about God in an honest pursuit of beauty, truth, and goodness. This happened:
I did my best to reflect Schaeffer, Lewis, Strobel, and Jesus with this… I laid it out, printed it back to back, trimmed it, and folded it up into sixths.
***
Packaging Happened
I don’t know why, but I’ve always held a candle for string tie envelopes. I found these awesome Japanese ones on Jetpens.com. I bought both sizes. The little notebook and sticker go into the big one. The Math + Faith resource goes into the little one, which then also goes into the big one.
I labeled the front of the envelopes in a style to match the booklet and Math + Faith resource
***
Over the Top?
Isn’t all this a little much? After all, isn’t just one person receiving this watch?
Yes, I guess it’s a little much. And yes, I think I’m doing this because it helps me keep moving. It’s part of my grief. It’s part of my loss to try to exercise creativity, beauty, and generosity. And I think I’m trying to reflect God’s over-the-top-ness when it comes to loving His creation. So the answer is yes. I’ve gone overboard. I’m hoping that the recipient(s) will see the care and the creativity and the love that I’ve put into this. I hope that will create a response in them towards Levi’s best qualities, his goodness, his kindness, his enthusiasm. I hope they will lean into the idea that there is something larger than us, larger even than math; that Love Himself is near…
And I’m still not done. Almost but not quite.
***
A Poster Happened
So those folks at Stickermule ran a special on a poster: one 18x24 full color print for $19. I got inspired. I’ve always loved Shepherd Fairey’s work. The colors, the iconic nature, the beauty, the composition. So I saw one of his recent works on Instagram and made this:
I Made a Poster
I tried to imitate the style and layout of one of my design heroes, Shepherd Fairey. I used the imagery from the booklet.
I figured the faculty could hang this on the bulletin board in the hallway of the math building where Levi worked, took and taught classes. It could maybe create some interest in the ‘scholarship’ and perhaps celebrate Levi’s life and godly qualities.
*******
I think I’m done. But who knows?! I’ve got other ideas too…
When the first watch is awarded, I’ll let you know. Thanks for going on this epic, long-form journey with me!
Ω
*I’ve settled on the idea that although he is not with us, Levi is alive. Perhaps he is more fully alive than I am. And so I’ve chosen to continue to use the present tense with him. I have a son. I named him Levi. He is in the presence of Jesus in a way that I cannot be right now. He is not gone; he is just not here.