Work is a topic that has been of professional interest to me for many years. A big focus of my time as a practicing anthropologist was program development for festivals and exhibits. I often interviewed and even worked alongside traditional craftspeople as part of my job. Those experiences did two things for me. First, they influenced my attitudes toward craft and the meaning of work. Secondly, it cured me of any desire to step into another’s shoes for a day and try their occupation.
Many exciting-sounding occupations require enormous amounts of skill and patience. Your appreciation of them should include understanding how much goes into doing them competently. Without that, you will soon be out of the oven and into the fire on your day doing another’s job.
Let me give you an example.
Given my lifelong preoccupation with maritime matters, it was almost fate that I’d wind up working with boatbuilders. We decided to run a boatbuilding program at the Folklife Center, of which I was the director. Guess who advocated for that!
It took only a short time to understand that all the books I had read on the subject had left lots out. When building a lapstrake boat ( a boat with overlapping planks as the sides) You must mount the planks accurately on the frame and over the preceding plank. This requires beveling and shaping each plank accurately before putting it in place. You have tools to help you shape the plank to a previously established line and angle. I was given this as an assignment, and I confidently measured and created the bevel.
My friend Ralph, the boatbuilder, came over to check my work. He asked me to close my eyes, put my fingers on the bevel, and walk the length of the plank. I did as requested and felt every bump, valley, and unfair surface my eyes had missed.
We all can have Walter Mitty-style daydreams in which we create skillful works through plucky attitudes and our native creative abilities. But a bit of reality should temper the desire, lest we fail to respect the amount of knowledge and skill actually involved in actually doing the job.
Yeah. I know, I’m a real spoilsport!
I had the same thought watching a couple of young guys repair my bathtub faucet. I thought, “I’m useless.” 😂
Must have been wonderful studying the worlds people and their work like that.
I so agree, people take so much for granted these days, never thinking for a second about all the learning and hard work required in making the things they live in and use each day.
A great post about work and appreciation, Lou.
Thanks, Mason!