You will know that when something touches our emotions, it is said that we have feelings. You will also notice that we use the same word, feeling, for what we do through the deliberate actions of our own human hands. Why is it that the affairs of the heart and the affairs of the hands are so closely intertwined? Are they so deeply connected that they share this word as their domain? Do you want me to explain it to you, or would you prefer to wonder on your own? If I have made you wonder, then we have taken the first step.
Once we begin to form those leading questions, we begin to think of the hands in a different manner. When we see something we like, or that incites our curiosity, the most natural uninhibited response is to touch. Did you know that the human touch can connect us? Did you know that the human hands can provide comfort or solace when we touch? Of course you know these things. If the power of the hands is to touch the emotions in such a significant way, why would we want to put children's learning at arms length?
In the wood shop, I've been finishing some new boxes and photographing them to share with galleries.
Make, fix and create...
Your "sawdust therapy" and my "making noise and sawdust" both seem to be bearing fruit. The hands and the brain both get exercise.
ReplyDeleteMario