My wife is not a reader, but that's okay because somebody needs to balance me out. One book she did enjoy reading early on in our marriage was The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. She figured out from her reading of that book that my "Love Language" is touch. I'm good with that, I think she's right. I love to touch and cuddle and be close.
Woodworking is perfect for this. Right now I'm refinishing a cool old Art Deco chair for Laurie (my wife) that has a beautiful birds eye maple back piece (the remainder is I think poplar). As I bring the figure back to life from under a dark covering finish - a criminal act - I'm reminded of all of the forces in the environment of the tree that first brought these swirls and tiny knots to life, and I'm reminded of the loving Creator that places beauty in every cell of His canvas.
Touch connects me with what lived many years ago and left behind a useful and beautiful structure that I can use to both ornament my life and support my back while sitting; but it's dependent upon how I treat it today for both it's beauty and utility. Our institutions are this.
As a culture in the 1930's after suffering a grave economic crisis brought on by our own greed we saw that we could ameliorate the suffering of some by setting up an institution that brought aid to the elderly and ultimately the infirm as well. The idea was that each citizen would pay a little bit of their income into a fund that would be carefully managed and nurtured for later access in elder years. It was a way to societally support older Americans; we later added to that support for the disabled. We had worked together to create a beautiful piece of wood, full of figure and depth...and we of-course painted over it with greed and obfuscation.
Greed in the form of avarice. A fund paid into by so many people grows to great size, and there are those in society that always feel that their "piece of the pie" needs to be bigger...and that wealth laying about anywhere is a fine target. That wealth gets repurposed, it gets directed toward projects it was never meant to fund...worthy project like roads and bridges...and unworthy projects like weapons and wars.
Obfuscation is even worse...wealth is hidden, redirected and subverted...stolen by any rational definition of the term but stolen in legal ways by men and women who deceive themselves that they deserve such largesse as the natural reward for their "sacrificial service". I worked for a poor county in the fine state of Minnesota...as a supervisor I was allowed $200 per night for overnight accommodations in the Twin Cities...as a private businessman I'm able to find a fully adequate place to stay for well under $100 per night.
Sanding through to the fine grain of that birds eye maple chair back reminds me that as a people we need to care about what we've built, and not hate it for what we perceive it takes from us. We've given the keys of our nation to a "deplorable" group of people because we've lost connection with our historical values...we've lost connection with what matters to us as a people.
Woodworking is perfect for this. Right now I'm refinishing a cool old Art Deco chair for Laurie (my wife) that has a beautiful birds eye maple back piece (the remainder is I think poplar). As I bring the figure back to life from under a dark covering finish - a criminal act - I'm reminded of all of the forces in the environment of the tree that first brought these swirls and tiny knots to life, and I'm reminded of the loving Creator that places beauty in every cell of His canvas.
Touch connects me with what lived many years ago and left behind a useful and beautiful structure that I can use to both ornament my life and support my back while sitting; but it's dependent upon how I treat it today for both it's beauty and utility. Our institutions are this.
As a culture in the 1930's after suffering a grave economic crisis brought on by our own greed we saw that we could ameliorate the suffering of some by setting up an institution that brought aid to the elderly and ultimately the infirm as well. The idea was that each citizen would pay a little bit of their income into a fund that would be carefully managed and nurtured for later access in elder years. It was a way to societally support older Americans; we later added to that support for the disabled. We had worked together to create a beautiful piece of wood, full of figure and depth...and we of-course painted over it with greed and obfuscation.
Greed in the form of avarice. A fund paid into by so many people grows to great size, and there are those in society that always feel that their "piece of the pie" needs to be bigger...and that wealth laying about anywhere is a fine target. That wealth gets repurposed, it gets directed toward projects it was never meant to fund...worthy project like roads and bridges...and unworthy projects like weapons and wars.
Obfuscation is even worse...wealth is hidden, redirected and subverted...stolen by any rational definition of the term but stolen in legal ways by men and women who deceive themselves that they deserve such largesse as the natural reward for their "sacrificial service". I worked for a poor county in the fine state of Minnesota...as a supervisor I was allowed $200 per night for overnight accommodations in the Twin Cities...as a private businessman I'm able to find a fully adequate place to stay for well under $100 per night.
Sanding through to the fine grain of that birds eye maple chair back reminds me that as a people we need to care about what we've built, and not hate it for what we perceive it takes from us. We've given the keys of our nation to a "deplorable" group of people because we've lost connection with our historical values...we've lost connection with what matters to us as a people.
