Musings

“One ship sails east, the other sails west,
with the self-same wind which blows.
Tis the set of the sail and not the gale
which tells us the way to go”.

A small  embossed, brass plaque hung on the wall of our home when I was a boy, and it took nearly 40 years for me to really understand what it was saying. When I did I painted this triptic mural to illustrate it.

So in my shop I always marveled at the phenomena that was often repeated where I would observe my employees and the set of their sails.  Always the most skilled at the bench was also the best sweeper, and conversly the poor craftsmen often hated to clean up and did a poor job.  There is no such thing as a menial job, only a menial “set of the sails” or attitude.

Once the attitude is set everything in life falls into line around that.

If my “reticular activating system” is set to only notice opportunities, excellence and beauty, then that is what fills my existence.

Bruce