The philosophical woodworker

If your not aware of Chris Schwarz’s personal blog, I suggest you check it out.  Lately, Chris  has been spicing up his posts with quotes from old issues of  “The Woodworker”.  Yesterday, he posted one (duplicated below) that struck me as even more relevant today than it was in 1954.

Far to often, I find myself in the situation the author speaks of; worn down by the less glamorous aspects of my job. I’ve been making a conscious effort lately to enjoy the simple things in life, and I’ve bee slowly re-discovering what truly makes me happy. I’ve spending what little time I can with those close to me, and doing what I have done in one fashion or another since I was a child; making stuff.

So many men to-day, doing work that is far removed from the making of things, the many professional workers, office workers, salesmen, factory workers – whose work may seem to be making but whose sole contribution is constant repetitive action in one infinitesimal part – lack contact with that real world in which a man can exercise his creative gifts.

They barely realise that such a world exists.

Theirs is the world of hard bargaining, of nimble wits or the routine job, which leave a great part of their natural human instincts unsatisfied, even though in all probability they do not know the reason for their perennial feelings of dissatisfaction and frustration.

— The Woodworker, January 1954