craftsmanship as a social art

Whether you are crafting legislation, or poetry, or whittling a stick with buddies on the porch of the hardware store, crafting is a social endeavor. We forget that sometimes. We may spend hours in our wood shops alone. The poet crafting a poem will likely spend many hours in isolation laboring over each word and honing each phrase to be just right. 

But, all is driven by forces within each to respond to that which lies without. Our efforts are not just to turn a phrase, or to whittle a stick into finer form but to thereby whittle ourselves into finer form in the hopes that the world follows. This is the aim and inclination of the common man, to do better, to make more of the world by being better at what we do.

I'm working on an article about the installation of quadrant hinges, and building cash donation boxes to be placed where bicyclists who ride our miles of in-city trails can contribute. I have a new design for a honing jig that I'll make and demonstrate the making and use of. The design came to me in the night and the necessary parts came in yesterday's mail. 

Make, fix, and create. Make the world a better place by learning likewise.