I had an adventure this weekend. I used power tools. Small ones, but that suited me just fine. I’m making something out of wood. It’s a spine to hold the pages of my calendar together. Don’t ask, its quite simple, but hard to explain. I have a kind friend who let me use his tools and showed me what to do. He is a very good teacher, letting me try mostly on my own, but giving me the help I needed.
Power tools are great. The hand equivalent of escalators and people movers. The material equivalent of Divine assistance in our lives. You have to still do it yourself, but you’ve got more than your own power working for you.
It was an interesting experience to make something by carving it out of a substance, seeing it emerge gradually from a lumpy twig. Ultimately the piece of wood that I ended up with was already there when the branch was in the tree, but then again it wasn’t. It’s different from sewing, where you cut out pieces and assemble them, or from papier-mâché where you build up your shape. In carving you only remove. You make something beautiful, or useful (hopefully) only by taking away. There’s got to be a spiritual analogy in there somewhere.
1 comment:
Was it Michelangelo that said.. when he make sculpture, he just imagine the final image inside the stone, and just take out what's not necessary. I think there are spiritual analogy in there also.
Post a Comment