"Rub a dub dub
Three men in a tub
And who do you think they be?
The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker
Turn them out, knaves all three."
--Traditional English Nursery Rhyme*
When I was rummaging around in my head for ideas about the "Getting to Know You" week of Blapril, the line "The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker" kept popping up.
I'd like to think it's because I putter around with hobbies, but I'm not exactly certain about that. I do cook (butcher), and I bake (baker), but the candles part? I seem to recall making candles the way the Colonial Americans did in 1776 as part of the 1976 Bicentennial celebration at my school (I was in First Grade at the time), but outside of burning candles in the fireplace** or above the mantle I haven't done much as far as candle making/usage is concerned.
But all three do have something in common: all three are things that people use their hands to work with. Sure, you can mechanize to your heart's content, but at their core all three are physical activities.
A lot of my hobbies require a certain level of manual dexterity. Video gaming is the most obvious example, but in the past my hobbies have included speaker building, homebrewing/winemaking, computer building, shortwave radio***, bread making, gardening, and car repair.**** Obviously, board gaming and pencil-and-paper RPGs don't require any real dexterity --and neither does reading-- but as my career does not require much manual dexterity at all I compensate by attempting to do a lot of other things myself.
At the same time, I also realize my own limitations. I know I'll never be as good as a contractor, and I have an alarming tendency to come close to electrocuting myself, so I farm out projects to contractors as the need arises. But I do have a stubborn streak in me that pushes me into learning as much as possible about a topic before deciding on a course of action. The mini-Reds tease me about my devotion to thoroughly researching a topic before starting a project, and they're not wrong.
Perhaps the reason why that nursery rhyme comes up when I think about my hobbies is that I am always interested in learning something new, researching it as much as I can, and then moving on to something else. There are hobbies that I return to, and ones that stick with me for the long term, but it is the fascination with how things work and why things are that keeps me going. I've told my wife on numerous occasions that when I retire I'd like to move to a town attached to a small liberal arts college or university; where I could simply become a fixture on campus, attending the classes I wanted, hearing talks and concerts, and enjoying the positives of being close to a place of learning. Oh, I don't have any illusions about what small towns are like, but there's something about being close to a university that the suburbs simply doesn't have.
#Blapril2020
*This is the version that I knew growing up; there are plenty of variations.
**I used to build fires in our fireplace, but after the "Smoke Incident", I stopped making fires. And no, you don't need to know anything else about that other than there were damp logs, a surprise backdraft, and an idiot (me) who had issues getting a proper fire built.
***Before you say that shortwave doesn't require a lot of manual dexterity, you've obviously never built or repaired your own outside antenna.
****Oh, the stories. My first car was a 1976 Plymouth Volare, which was a rust bucket in the truest sense. When I first began working on the car I discovered a bird's nest where the air filter would go, which was just the beginning of my life with what was christened the Silver Bullet. It even had a hole rusted through in the floor of the driver's side where you'd normally place your left foot, so to compensate I'd place my foot at a weird angle. To this day, I still use that angle for my foot which eventually makes my left hip ache if I drive for over a couple of hours.
Three men in a tub
And who do you think they be?
The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker
Turn them out, knaves all three."
--Traditional English Nursery Rhyme*
When I was rummaging around in my head for ideas about the "Getting to Know You" week of Blapril, the line "The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker" kept popping up.
I'd like to think it's because I putter around with hobbies, but I'm not exactly certain about that. I do cook (butcher), and I bake (baker), but the candles part? I seem to recall making candles the way the Colonial Americans did in 1776 as part of the 1976 Bicentennial celebration at my school (I was in First Grade at the time), but outside of burning candles in the fireplace** or above the mantle I haven't done much as far as candle making/usage is concerned.
But all three do have something in common: all three are things that people use their hands to work with. Sure, you can mechanize to your heart's content, but at their core all three are physical activities.
***
A lot of my hobbies require a certain level of manual dexterity. Video gaming is the most obvious example, but in the past my hobbies have included speaker building, homebrewing/winemaking, computer building, shortwave radio***, bread making, gardening, and car repair.**** Obviously, board gaming and pencil-and-paper RPGs don't require any real dexterity --and neither does reading-- but as my career does not require much manual dexterity at all I compensate by attempting to do a lot of other things myself.
At the same time, I also realize my own limitations. I know I'll never be as good as a contractor, and I have an alarming tendency to come close to electrocuting myself, so I farm out projects to contractors as the need arises. But I do have a stubborn streak in me that pushes me into learning as much as possible about a topic before deciding on a course of action. The mini-Reds tease me about my devotion to thoroughly researching a topic before starting a project, and they're not wrong.
***
Perhaps the reason why that nursery rhyme comes up when I think about my hobbies is that I am always interested in learning something new, researching it as much as I can, and then moving on to something else. There are hobbies that I return to, and ones that stick with me for the long term, but it is the fascination with how things work and why things are that keeps me going. I've told my wife on numerous occasions that when I retire I'd like to move to a town attached to a small liberal arts college or university; where I could simply become a fixture on campus, attending the classes I wanted, hearing talks and concerts, and enjoying the positives of being close to a place of learning. Oh, I don't have any illusions about what small towns are like, but there's something about being close to a university that the suburbs simply doesn't have.
#Blapril2020
*This is the version that I knew growing up; there are plenty of variations.
**I used to build fires in our fireplace, but after the "Smoke Incident", I stopped making fires. And no, you don't need to know anything else about that other than there were damp logs, a surprise backdraft, and an idiot (me) who had issues getting a proper fire built.
***Before you say that shortwave doesn't require a lot of manual dexterity, you've obviously never built or repaired your own outside antenna.
****Oh, the stories. My first car was a 1976 Plymouth Volare, which was a rust bucket in the truest sense. When I first began working on the car I discovered a bird's nest where the air filter would go, which was just the beginning of my life with what was christened the Silver Bullet. It even had a hole rusted through in the floor of the driver's side where you'd normally place your left foot, so to compensate I'd place my foot at a weird angle. To this day, I still use that angle for my foot which eventually makes my left hip ache if I drive for over a couple of hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment