When Work Loses Meaning

I suppose woodworking once found meaning in making a living but for most woodworkers today it actually means more than that. Whereas in times past woodworking made sense because it supported life and those essentials of life we once really and truly depended on, today it's more about making sense of a life that for many makes little sense. Before about 10 years ago I never used a computer. The woman that supported me with Internet work and computer work suddenly quit and I had to find out how computers worked and what they did. Suddenly I was learning Pagemaker then In Design to develop my curriculum and to pass on what I knew others wanted to learn from me. Woodworking came easy to me. It was natural. Writing hasn't come easy to me and it cost me something to have to spend hours over and above my long days in the shop to become at least capable of transforming my energies into the keyboard and the world of media for educating the new genre I now started to care so much about. Even now thrashing a few hours on the keyboard is painful for me. It's not my gift or my calling but teaching and training is and so is making and designing. At one time I wrote articles for magazines until I realised that the energy I was giving to it was supporting the very things that caused so many problems. If I could divert those energies into life elsewhere I could keep my own voice and instead of being so really counterproductive I could revitalise the life of craftsmanship in the lives of people like you. When the internet came along I never thought much about it because I was never programmed for computerism. I hadn't grown up in it and was not defined by it or for it. When I left school at 15 my head teacher (School Superintendent US) told me that I was ineducable. Uncertain of any future I found an apprenticeship and suddenly, behind the workbench, I discovered craft and the art of work. I found interest in everything surrounding my bench and my tools. Each one of the tools I needed cost me a full week's apprentice wage but unwrapping a #4 from its yellow box and inner paper meant more to me than almost anything I could buy today. The tools gradually grew and the men I worked under took me under their wing. I soon learned that they were willing to invest when I showed interest. When I asked questions they toyed with me yes, but they always gave me the answers I searched for in the end.
When I stand at my bench life makes sense. When I,place the tools against the wood something feels all the more,honest and I am so thankful that I don't have to pretend. I think that's how my students feel when they come to my classes or follow a class online. Most of them are indeed strapped,to,a computer most of the day but when they arrive home and pull the tools out they suddenly feel a wave of sobriety and solidity that strengthens their resolve to become truly skilled in their work.
I am currently training two apprentices and who know, perhaps soon they will start training two more themselves. Part of their work is to make videos and edit them. We have others unseen in the background doing the same and they all do what they do because they truly care about the goals. They form a very unique team together that I seldom see and have not really seen to the same degree before. They too in some degree are woodworkers and I like that they can both see and feel what I feel and want to convey for themselves those same feelings, thoughts and emotions into the films, the blogs, the websites and everything else that make this so much a solid reality for the hundreds of thousands that read the blog, follow the films and so support our training endeavours.
Today I worked more on the next training project to get ready for a new training session next week. The same people that now make films and edit what you see work on prototypes, build furniture pieces and even help in teaching some of the workshops for visiting students. You see it makes so much sense to pass on skill and train others. I have lost track of those I have trained for the past two decades but there are a couple of dozen out there that had their raw beginnings on the other wide of my workbench or at one of the student benches.
Our online broadcast has made a big difference to our direction and I so enjoy this relatively new aspect of my life. We have over 100 films out there now for people to learn from. Half of them are free and we have plans for many more. This has become something of a release of energy for me. I feel I can pour myself into a new generation by the thousands. That still seems amazing to me. People in Perth and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, India, Africa and throughout the whole of Europe are now learning online and from my blog. Yes, I wish that all of them could be here with me for a few months, but, you know, in some ways I feel that they are. My not traveling this past year has been much easier on me and it has meant I could reach far more than ever before. I don't know what the future holds at all, but I know it matters and I know that you matter.