I begin this journal by saying that now, I am a proud father. My wife and I brought our daughter home from the hospital a few days ago. It is a strange fate we should suffer so much fear and doubt… over so small a thing. Such a little thing. A little thing that opens its eyes upon me as her gateway to the world.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to take training to become an EMT. One of the courses I took was about pediatric emergencies. It taught me that one of the most beautiful sounds that an medical practioner can hear is a screaming baby. It’s got the ABC’s. That means it’s got an Airway, it’s Breathing, and the heart is Circulating blood.
My business, and my passion are not to bring the world hundreds of thousands of pieces of furniture from a mass produced line, inflexible and unchanging, nonthinking and standardized. China and Ikea have done that for us already. Millions and millions of copies, all alike. Non-passionate and desensitized to the beauty of the world.
My business is to work with myself and my clients through a world who needs more people who see more than what a machine can cut. It is to work through a world who is desensitized to human foibles, not by adding a firehose to a flood. It is to put ideas to work, pencil to paper, paper to wood, and make my favorite piece to be last one I was working on, and my best piece my next piece. Through each dovetail I chisel, each tenon I rout, I create craft. One joint at a time.