5.4 KiB
[INTRO]
[PEOPLE WALKING INTO THE WORKSHOP]
This son of God has a complicated relationship with work.
He loves it.
He hates it.
It's his primary means by which he exercises dominion over the world. Well, that's really what the work is. Exercising his dominion over the world. Only humans can work - can take the form of matter that exists and put it on a new path.
[THAD WORKING AT HIS COMPUTER IN A COMFY CHAIR]
This son of God is an engineer. He usually exercises his dominion with the aid of technological apparatuses which amplify his powers. Writing a program, or designing something in CAD, are seeds he make that have exponential output. He feels extreme dominion in this way. The tools are just so powerful. Godlike.
[SHOP OVERVIEW]
But today, he's with a dozen other men, cutting timbers by hand. Ripping the fibers of oak with sharp metal with blood and sweat. No electricity here.
[PANNING OVER TOOLS]
That doesn't mean no technology. The saws are technology. Even this type of framing is an american invention, facilitated by rulers and squares. It didn't exist before the 19th century. This drill is definitely technology.
[WORKING]
But this technology requires toil. Toil that the desk job doesn't require. At least, the desk job requires cerebral toil. Maybe emotional toil. This framing, though, requires all of it. Especially with this oak. Cursed red oak. It splinters. It doesn't crosscut nicely. It dulls the chisels. It smells.
Well, the smell is kinda nice. But weird.
Why? - Why this toil?
[OPENING BIBLE / CLOSEUP OF THE WORD - GENESIS 2:15]
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Cultivate. Serve. Work.
[TURNING THE PAGE - GENESIS 3:17]
This happens before the fall. To work it and take care of it. In paradise - in the garden. Work. We forget this, but we do surely know that:
Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
[WORKING]
He knows why the work. Or he thinks he knows why the work. He's building a frame. A frame that someone will use to make a cabin. This makes sense. He's cultivating the wood into a cabin. He's transforming it - literally altering the form of reality around him. He's rerouting it. [RUNNING THE MILLERS FALLS DRILL]
This is good to him. He's here to serve.
And as he runs this drill to cut mortises, which he has to finish by hand with a chisel, the other students are using a chain mortiser.
[RUNNING THE CHAIN MORTISER]
He knows that it's faster. It makes square holes. The corners are the most irritating part of cutting the mortise. But he remembers the why is bigger.
[WORKING - TIMELAPSE]
The work is for him.
We forget this oftentimes. Until we're confronted with boredom - a rarity in our modern culture where amusement is a flip of the phone away. Work is for man, not man for work. This work is here so that he may build his muscles. So that he may better understand his muscles. And his chisel. And the wood. The tree. How the wood splits when he holds the chisel flatter. Or steeper. Or hits it with a mallet. How knots affect the flow of the grain - and the resulting strength of the structure. His instructor is teaching him this, yes, but principally, it is the work that is teaching him. His instructor is more of a sherpa -a guide. His instructor can say all he wants, and this man can listen as attentively as he can, but it makes no difference until his chisel in his hand touches wood - this is where the learning begins; in the work.
[CLOSEUP WORKING]
This work is, quite literally, a gift from God so that he may understand Him. All work is. A part of his pedagogy. The lessons are different each day. Sometimes they're actually about the wood. But often they're about himself: he lacks attentiveness. Fortitude. Temperance. He wants to chisel quickly, but this means he takes too much out of the housing in spots.
Yes, the chain mortiser would be faster. But he would have to upkeep and sharpen it. And deal with the extension cords. If it breaks, he'd be dependent on getting specialized parts from the manufacturer who might not be in business ten years from now. There are practical objective concerns - and subjective ones too. He would have less occasion to exercise his muscles. He would be inclined to disregard the grain of the wood, to rely on a well-constructed apparatus capable of chewing through material without discrimination.
The engineer brain is kicking in, seeing this sit-on, arm-powered drill and an electric chain mortiser - is there perhaps a new permutation of these characteristics? A hand-powered chain mortiser? Or, perhaps, to simply use a mortising chisel on the drill? Have people done this before? [CLOSEUP OF MAKITA BRANDNAME] Can he make something new which resolves this tension between the dependency on special parts and equipment from a manufacturer far far away, and the productivity they offer?
The engineer brain has stumbled upon something.
[DRAWING A NEW DESIGN - SLOW ZOOM OUT]
It stumbles upon an opportunity - for TRANSCENDENCE. An opportunity for BOTH-AND. Toil and efficiency! Productivity and understanding! The limited conventional wisdom of men would say that we must choose to be productive or choose to come into deeper relationship with our work - but that is only if we refuse to exercise dominion over our technological landscape, and instead simply accept the false dichotomies we are given.