Sunday, May 16, 2010

hand work and community....

There are some who think that things made by hand are impractical, unaffordable, and absurdly expensive. What you pay when you engage someone to do fine work actually consists of two components. The first is the payment for the object being made which should cover the costs of material, overhead and time. The second could be best called an investment in learning and growth. When you commission work or purchase work created by an individual craftsman you are investing in the development of craftsmanship, skill and the quality of the individual. The tragedy of our modern times is that we have forgotten that. Communities rise and fall purely on the basis of craftsmanship. Where caring craftsmanship is engaged and encouraged, communities rise as individual craftsmen arise, to full human potential. When craftsmanship declines or is allowed to perish, communities decline also.

So why in the world is this simple thing so hard for some to understand? Some, ignoring craftsmanship, unwilling to invest in the growth of others, would allow communities to fail and then withdraw to gated communities to protect themselves from the consequences of their own neglect.

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