hands are not only smart for woodworking

Blog reader Mario, in Buffalo, who is also an avid woodworker sent a link reminding that the wisdom of the hands is not just about woodworking. Garden Walk Buffalo draws huge crowds and much praise. Here in Arkansas we have severe drought which seems impossible after the spring rains that threatened to float everything away. So we water each night and hope for a summer rain storm to bring some relief. Despite what anti-science advisers proclaim, we ARE in the midst of global warming that will take a toll on American forests, and we should be doing much more about it. On the radio yesterday, I heard about the massive investment that China is making in science and engineering, while war spending and refusal to tax corporate profits and millionaires in the US are crippling our economy, and education. Teaching to the test insures that children have little interest in education and even less in science and engineering.

And so, yes, Mario. The hands are not only smart for wood working, but also for the garden and for music and medicine. They are also for scientific investigation, and for history, and geology, and everything human and everything humanly possible. We have made a mess of education in thinking that hands should be neatly folded on desks rather than unrestrained in learning, and we have made an even greater mess of American government and economy by allowing those with untrained hands to rise to positions of power and stupidity.

Today in the woodshop, I'll continue the restoration of my daughter's dresser, and continue oiling boxes to fill orders. The third challenge is to prepare for next week's classes at Marc Adam's School of Woodworking. I'll teach one week of "Simply Beautiful Box Making"  and then a one day class on designing the interiors for small boxes.