Geek Musings
A New Hope…
As I sit here this evening and think about the events of this past week, one thing keeps floating to the top of my mind that set the lens through which I’m going to look as I gaze toward the future of how I work and interact with people. I wanted to share this with folks who read my blog because I believe it’s important to take note of. It’s a beautiful story of how two different worlds can collide in myriad ways when we least expect it.
As I started into this weekend, I met with a local woodworking artisan whom I contacted to gauge interest in and ability to build a project for the Geek Foundry store. On its surface, the project is fairly simple. I can’t share the details at present but will (hopefully) be carrying a new product in the next couple of weeks that you’ll get to see and purchase. One of the most important things for me as an absolute requirement was and is that the product be made in Wisconsin by a local woodworker.
Having had a grandfather who was a master woodworker, I’ve had a lifelong affinity for woodcraft. When my grandfather came back home from World War II he opened up a custom cabinetry shop in Detroit and created fine wood products under the name Western Wood Products. In the 1970s when conversion vans became popular, he single-handedly pioneered the custom van interior industry by creating prime wood cup holders, wine racks, armoires, folding tables, and other unique wooden storage compartments and embellishments. His products caught the attention of some national players in the conversion market and after making a nice living producing those pieces, he sold off that part of the business.
Grandpa George setup a corner in his shop just for my brother and me so we could play and tinker with old tools and wood. That’s where my latent love of wood working was born. There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you see something in your mind’s eye then build it and hold the finished piece in your hands. Of course back then it was mostly lopsided napkin holders and rickety toolboxes but we enjoyed what we were doing.
Unfortunately, I never pursued woodworking seriously beyond my childhood and though I still have an inherent skill with the tools and have made a few little projects here and there, I have neither the time nor the capacity to do anything serious with it these days. That’s OK though. I’ve fostered other skills that have brought me many, many years of happiness and prosperity–but I’ll never lose that love of woodcraft. Which brings me back to my quest to find the right person to help me bring another dream to life.
The gentleman I met with was younger than me by at least a generation. He was soft spoken and had an accent that hinted at Midwest origins. He came from a rural background and had kind eyes and a warm smile that made you feel genuinely comfortable in his presence. We had a wonderful conversation over lunch, most of which was focused on getting to know each other, where we were from, talked about our families, what we did for a living, and so on. I even brought my son with me as he had no school that day.
I won’t go into all of the details of the conversation but the topic of recent politics came up in the context of small business and municipal regulations and what not. It was a nail biter of a moment for a truly short space of time and I refrained from opening up that can of worms because it really wasn’t why we were there, and I’m sure he felt the same. We did a very graceful dance around the unpleasant bits and only debated a few very minor differences of opinion strictly concerning business-related policy issues. And in the space of a few breaths, we were off that topic and focused more clearly once again on the reason we were there: mutual desire to live our dreams.
The lunch, the conversation, and the company were all great. I came away with a real sense of happiness that despite our geographical separation, despite his rural roots and my urban ones, despite any unexplored differences in political preferences, two strangers could have so much else in common that they could find all kinds of parallel spaces to share and most importantly, come away with the common agreement that it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to make a strong community. And it takes a village to help and encourage others to pursue living their dreams and succeed.
It gave me a new hope that as we continue to open up our national dialogue on relations with each other as citizens of this great nation, more people will find those commonalities they strive for and will ultimately work together toward making the world a better, friendlier place for all.
I’m really looking forward to what the next couple of weeks bring with this project and new business relationship. I’ll keep you posted.
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