Half Past Noon

For discussion:

The Dutch Reformed idea of “the antithesis” is practically and theologically counter-productive. (Same goes for “worldview” thinking.)

I speak in the affirmative.

Zucchini

O dread species!
overachiever, overpopulator,
you bore me to death.

At night while the stars hone their points
you multiply and inflate into obscene gestures.

You are the season’s homeless.
We pass you among us like orphaned children
until our sense of charity dissolves
under the sheer weight of your numbers.

Then do we stack you like firewood
and pray for lightening to strike.

Robert Samarotto

It’s not that I remember this video, nor that I still enjoy it. It’s more that this song came out in 1999, for the Love of Pete, and it’s still in regular rotation on my iPod as if it came out within the last few years.

OH NOES I AM BECOMING MY PARENTS

Don’t even try to tell me you don’t want to see this because I won’t believe you.

So, Sandy and I watched Julie & Julia on Tuesday night and loved it. (Austin, Ephron was definitely on for this one. Two thumbs up on her simple but enjoyable paralleling of two lives.) They managed to add some humanity to Julia Child’s character (it could have easily been a stodgy retelling), twinning the main characters without pushing anything too much. Well worth seeing.

Yet, I do have one complaint. And even though I’m trying very hard to move away from cynicism and negativity, I’m going to voice it.

Halfway through the movie Julie’s husband runs off, frustrated by her cooking obsession. It touches off some apocalyptic moments for Julie, as she begins to see how selfish she’s been. This realization is topped off by her asking a best friend, “Am I really a bitch?” To which her friend says, “Yes. But aren’t all women bitches?” (or something along those lines—I don’t have the exact quote, but that’s the spirit of it)

Yet, it doesn’t really feel like Julie’s been a bitch. A tad bit obsessed, sure, but Ephron never really makes us think of Julie that way. Instead we’re very sympathetic, almost disbelieving. “Well, yes, of course you’re a bitch, because every woman’s a bitch so you’re just like the rest of us!”

Had Ephron actually managed to convince us that Julie was indeed a foul person, the movie would have been Picture of the Year worthy. As it was, that moment of character non-transformation falls flat and left me with a tinge of dissatisfaction.

Gabe – I’m right there with you. A new book called “Shop Class as Soulcraft” has raised some interesting points along these lines. A favorite blog (Front Porch Republic) just did a week-long symposium on it.  This summary of the book touches on a surprising amount of your questions – the value of the craftsman, how we got here, and where do we go from here. I’d be very curious to know what you think of it.

But in the meantime, perhaps this will cheer you up. It’s my new favorite (click to expand):

To begin, I should make it clear that the comments made below are as abstract and vague as possible, particularly when they relate to my own experience and work. (As an employee, it’s not really appropriate for me to be more specific or direct.)

I feel your frustration, Gabe. Everyone wants to do something they love and, more importantly, wants to be good at doing something they love. This is what most movies about corporate America now revel in, from Office Spacea to In Good Company to Julie & Julia (which is indirectly about corporate America).

Yet, I do have trouble with something you said:

My only problem is that I don’t want to be a businessman, I want to build houses.

This isn’t said to be mean (at all—I promise!), but I think that’s comparable to a pastor saying, “I don’t want to deal with people’s personal problems. I just want to preach good sermons.” Or to a teacher declaring, “I don’t want to deal with crummy students. I just want to further my research and write more books.”

Hiring a manager might seem like a waste of time and effort. After all, managers often don’t know as much about doing the work as the labourers. But I think that’s missing a key component of what such a manager ought to do. Essentially, he’s on the job (or should be) as an advocate for both the customer (homeowner, etc.) and for the labourer. He’s not trying to bleed money from the customer; he’s ensuring that the job gets done well, in good time, and without undue stress for the customer. On the other hand, he’s not there to rip off the labourer. Rather, he’s there to ensure that the labourer gets paid for his work and that he’s able to do his job without too much hassle.

This may be idealistic, but I think it’s what contractors ought to aim for.

What’s more, I don’t think that this is an impersonal, bottom-dollar-only perspective. Is profit important? Definitely. A worker is due his wages, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him striving to be more efficient and make more money on the job. But another key component is service. Or, if you want to put it another way, the people. The reason you, the contractor, need to be as much of a businessman as a housebuilder is because the customer needs you to be that. Otherwise, you’re not providing them the service they require. You’re saving them money (since you know where to get materials and you likely get a better deal on them), time (since they obviously need to focus their attention on other matters, too), and stress.

To put it in a different context, that’s why you paid to go to college. You could have read all those books and skipped that education, but then you would have lost the benefit of someone else walking you through texts, passing on the benefit of their experience, and giving you the most integral parts of education. (At least, that’s what you hope!)

Or, to go back to the pastoral example, what if the pastor merely preached sermons and gave you books to read when you needed advice?

Gabe, I do have comments on your post, but first, you all need to welcome Tuesday by watching this video.

(Make sure you watch it all the way to the end.)

HT: FAIL Blog (of course!)

Hello there fellas. Davey, I hope our Mother is treating you well. I have had something on my mind for a while. It’s finally developing into thoughts that can be discussed. Strangely enough, it was provoked into discussion by watching “Julie and Julia” last night. That is a fine movie, it provoked alot of thought and then discussion between Kristen and I.  So here I am to open it up on a larger forum.

I am a contractor. By that I mean I make a contract with people to build something for them, then I build it, and they pay me. If I am to be a successful contractor, I will find ways to increase my profit margins by getting faster, paying less for materials, paying less for labor, and offering a service that customers are willing to pay more for. My only problem is that I don’t want to be a businessman, I want to build houses.

I want to get better at the processes that mark out foundations, set grade, frame structures, set windows, wire outlets, plumb supply and waste systems, install trim, set doors etc. I want to invest myself in learning and perfecting a craft that I enjoy. I want to be an old crotchety guy who can get more done with a hammer in a half an hour than a crew of young bucks can with all their fancy new tools. I want to be a craftsman. My tools, materials, customers, and the transformation of something that isn’t into something that is. That is plenty enough to keep me busy and challenged for at least a couple more years.

But I can’t, I have to be a successful businessman. I have to focus on writing tight contracts, performance agreements, realistic schedules, marketing, overhead, and a host of other things that have no more to do with building than Priuses have to do with saving the ozone. If I don’t do those things I will not get much business, I will not have anybody to work with me, and my customers will not trust me.

Surely this was not the way they used to do it? Craftsmen cannot be businessmen, or they would be poor craftsmen. Is this why the craftsman is a dying breed? Why must there be a middleman, a manager between the guy who wants something built and the guy who builds stuff? It seem that mostly the answer to that last question has to do with people seeing an opportunity to fill a gap and make some money. But why the gap? Why must a homeowner hire a guy to manage the guy who can do what he (the homeowner) wants done? Are people that detached and incapable of managing their own project? Can’t the average Joe who has or can get enough money to remodel his house also hack it enough to get a guy who knows how to use wood, metal and tools to make him a new set of rooms?

The heart of the issue for me is that this “business” model we operate on hijacks the other business that people used to do. I’m not mad at corporate America, I’m not taking the artist’s “me and my paintbrush” reclusion, I just want to pursue what I love doing. Sometimes I’d genuinely rather be driving a dump truck than being a carpenter, because I like driving trucks and if you are a truck driver that is exactly what you do.

The other side of it is the money. Everything is about success, about survival, about making enough money to then go do something else. What about the product? What about being successful at framing? The guy who manages the guys who drive trucks probably doesn’t even have a CDL, much less any idea what to do when the brakes go out on a 60,000 lb truck. But he is there, getting paidto tell drivers to haul gravel by people who want gravel hauled. I know, I know, division of labor. But there is an end to that road too, packed with people who get no fullfillment out of what they do. But hey, whatever makes the $$$, right? People do not care what they do anymore. They just want a job. They just want the security of a paycheck. This is no way to live.  Yetwe have to have a paycheck so that we can buy from the myriad of vendors we get our food, clothes, and stuffs from–and so we can make enough to regularly and one day finally get away from the thing that gets you a paycheck.

Frank, you can probably relate directly to this since you work in a construction company now. Davey, you are interested in political theology and you love talking about capitalism. Austin, you have read some of the weirdest stuff I have never heard of. Chris, you are well aquainted with the business world and businessmen. Brian, you know me pretty well, you know the direction we are headed as a family. Help me out here. I don’t really have a handle on this thing yet, I need to know what to read, what topics to look up. What is the history on this topic? Where did we get this model and why is it so dominant? Is this one of the downsides of capitalism? Where  and when did we get locked into this paycheck system?

This may sound like I’m dissatisfied or disillusioned with my job, like I’m having a mid-life crisis when I’m 25. I am not, I just do not want to carve grooves now that I will run in for the rest of my career or life. I’m starting to run up against things in the Christian business world that don’t jive with the direction we are taking as a family. I also care very much about my profession. I do not want it to get shaken up and emptied out by some god.

I realize I have not stumbled upon anything necessarily new or insightful, but that’s just the trouble. I don’t really know what I’m running into here. I have been rambling on now for over a page, and I’m not sure I’ve actually talked about what I’m trying to get at. So help me out.

-Gabriel