walking on a dusty road...

Today my wife and daughter and I are in Phoenix, AZ to attend a small mini-reunion of cousins and family at my sister's house. After flying into Phoenix yesterday I looked out the window of our rental car and saw one person in the distance walking alone along a dusty road in a barren landscape. I realized that regardless of what happens with our current model of environmental predation and excess, humans will survive in some form that demands the steady development of skill and attention.

We are staying at the Talking Stick Indian Casino and it is amazing to see hundreds of folks sitting bored and passive at video games as they shovel their money away into these electronic machines that make so much noise, a sane person can't think straight. It seems so mindless. Getting to the hotel and restaurants requires passing through the gauntlet of electronic noise.

Is this the high point in the development of human culture? Or is human culture best reflected in that one lone Native American walking a dusty road? Here in the hotel, artifacts of an earlier time are on display, celebrating the creative ingenuity of folks who walked this landscape in an earlier time. There are beautiful hand made pots and weavings. But folks are really here for other reasons entirely.

One of my jobs while I'm here is to prepare for my ISACS presentation next Thursday and Friday in Louisville, KY. So I am going through slides and preparing thoughts that are relevant to woodworking education and the ways our hands engage our interests, attention, heart, mind, and character. One of the great things for me is that I've kept photographic records of my work at the Clear Spring School, so I can look back month by month through this blog and remember what we've done. The blog makes presentation easier than it would be without such a clear record of our wood shop activities.

Make, fix and create...