I am safely home from my weekend travels, and of course I have to wonder whether that kind of information is necessary to state in a blog... the trivialities of modern existence. My class in Indiana was near the city of Battleground, which was the site of an early Indian battle between troops led by William Henry Harrison and an alliance of tribes led by Tecumseh. The wood shop where my class was held overlooks the Tippecanoe River. The old election slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!" that many Americans learned as school children referred to Harrison who years later tried to capitalize on his fame as the leader of the victory over the Indians. His Vice-presidential running-mate, was named Tyler, and perhaps their inane slogan was prophecy of what was to come later in American presidential politics.

Speaking of prophecy, Chief Tecumseh had a brother named Prophet, a "medicine man" who claimed that his powers would make the Indians invincible to the white man's bullets. They attacked in the dark and it seemed to work OK until the sun came up and the Indians realized the number of their dead and dying. There are things that change when the dawn comes and we awaken from conjecture and stupidity to the cold harsh glare of physical reality.

The hands are like that. We have thought that it's OK to stop being a people who make things and exercise creativity in physical reality through the use of our hands. Like modern day Socrates, we have discouraged our children from engaging in manual creativity. We give them toys that battle in the dark. The consequences have gone unnoticed. But the crack of dawn is at hand. It is nice to be home in Arkansas, but also very nice to have shared my weekend with others who love making things from wood.