When you wake up in the morning and turn on the coffee maker, do you ever wonder how it actually works? or the toaster? sure it heats up coils that get hot, that in turn brown the bread, but could you sit down and make one? No, not highly likely!
It seems everything we do these days is dependent on some form of technology. You can get in the car and turn the key but do you really understand how and why a car works? Maybe if you are a mechanic but most of us are clueless! The same goes for all who use a computer everyday of the week! We have no concept of how it really works and most of us never will understand it completely. If it breaks down, someone else fixes it!
From the garment you wear, to the shoes on your feet, we remain clueless about how it is made! We are totally dependent on a company to provide for us our daily needs!
Simple things of the past such as sewing a dress or knitting a scarf with mittens is deemed too time consuming or old fashioned!
During the past 50 years or so we have lost many craft techniques and have become literally useless when it comes to providing for ourselves without the help of a large company.
We seem to believe it’s better if its bought! This is just not true! We have been led to believe we cannot make anything of quality so we go out get a job to make someone else rich. In return, we are payed money to buy everything we need, or think we need!
Trade skills our in high demand, yet bricklayers and stone masons are hard to find in this country. Men no longer do as much physical work as before; so they must attend a gym or jog to try and stay fit. Some, do not even bother to go that far, and would rather watch athletes perform instead.
We have become a nation which only wishes to work for others and entertain oneself with any free time. That free time is becoming less and less though as we become trapped in a cycle of perpetual work then shop, work then shop.
Shopping has become a past-time as we no longer know or wish to know how to make it ourselves. We are leaving ourselves and our children very vulnerable. They will become totally dependent on machines and corporations to provide for them.
A dismal future lies ahead if we do not start teaching ourselves once again the simple ways of creating that which we need. The sense of achievement is enriching and empowering; when the day comes when we can say…
” I made it myself “.
by Sandra Lynn © April, 2008
Filed under: LIFE | Tagged: computers, concepts, craftsmen, garments, manufactering, shopping, skills, technology, tradesmen
I’ve always agreed with this philosophy… I especially feel bad for the generation of kids who have to grow up in this consumer addicted, urbanized, media controlled society we’ve allowed to rule our daily lives. How often do the youth of today experience the outdoors and the beauty of wildlife? Now try teaching them crafts, trades, or God forbid… knitting and sewing!
Sandra Lynn,
You have touched on some very good points here. It is so sad that some of the creative arts of our ancestors are being lost in the fast paced world of today. Good subject…good writing.
Bev