"...A Cornishman, John Chenoweth by name and a joiner by trade. He taught carpentry as a labour of love before the advent of a woodwork master. He kept that school like a new pin. Of course he had to put up with a good deal from the scholars, but I never knew him to chastise the worst of his tormentors. He would chase them, rarely with success because of a dragging foot, but when he did corner his quarry, a forceful homily, a twinkle in the eyes, a pat on the shoulder and it was over. A devoted Methodist, on Sunday he too turned teacher."Thus Chenoweth, though nearly forgotten as have been most craftsmen of his era, lived on in the memories of a man who had a larger impact in greater things. Sir Harold Bellman grew up to become an author and leader in the Building Society Movement, and was director of the Abbey National Building Society.
There is a strange inclination for some of those who have not had the opportunity to really make anything with their own hands. They may feel a longing for human creative capacity that they hope to fill with pretense, claiming "I built that," when the truth was that they only paid to have it built. The world we live in is the result of a collaborative effort with some getting a disproportionate share of the credit and reward. Labor day is a time to reflect on the unknown craftsmen, and those whose shoulders upon which we continue to stand.
A reader, Tom, sent the following link to the etymology of the word surgeon.Would it surprise you that it might have something to do with the hands? Surgeon, "working or done by hand."It seems like every surgeon I've met will describe in detail the necessity of learning hands-on.
Make, fix and create...
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