Years ago I asked my students whether they would prefer that I make things easy for them or difficult and the answer, of course, was difficult. We all know that it things are made too easy, boredom soon sets in and the suffering begins. Doing difficult and demanding things energizes the spirit.
In the Maker Ed Substack this morning, Dale Dougherty discussed Kelly Lambert's research on "effort driven rewards," and their relationship to depression, and if a clinical psychologist was to peer into a typical American classroom, he or she might diagnose an overall malaise bordering on depression. Longtime readers of this blog or readers of my book Wisdom of Our Hands will recognize Dr. Lambert's work, as I've discussed it many times before.
Yesterday I visited ESSA briefly where a group of veterans was busy crafting wooden benches, and no malaise was to be found.
In my wood shop I continue working on children's rocking chairs, toddler size. I'm mainly cutting parts to size and cutting the mortise and tenon joints that hold the parts together. When those operations are complete, I'll hand carve the backs. At the moment I have parts scattered on every flat surface in the shop.
Make, fix and create.
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