Those of us who are troubled about what we’re seeing unfold around us—and even in our own lives—often feel overwhelmed at what to do. How do we “push back” against rampant materialism, encroaching technology, and insufferable meaninglessness. Even those of us with faith may go through long, empty stretches of wondering where God is to be found in the day-to-day struggle.
The answer may be nearer to hand than you realize. It might not be in a better philosophical or religious belief system, a change of political “regimes,” or a complete overhaul of our society; but it might be found in that dusty old toolbox of yours.
The more we move away from digging holes, pounding up pictures, changing our own brakes, or chopping logs, the greater we are at risk for losing touch with ourselves, the Divine, and reality, itself. As AI continues to threaten, social media continues to pollute, and machines continue to replace even our experience of self, we do not need to wait for some guru finally to bring us the solution we’ve been pining for, but we just need to find a good tool.
After listening to this episode, you will be convinced of the necessity of tools, you will have a better appreciation for God’s presence in matter and the priesthood of creation, and you will have more confidence seeking the wisdom of your hands for the answers your brain just can’t find.
So, join us to discover how a good tool can change your life.
Here is the poem we talked about during the episode:
Axe Handles
By Gary Snyder
One afternoon the last week in April
Showing Kai how to throw a hatchet
One-half turn and it sticks in a stump.
He recalls the hatchet-head
Without a handle, in the shop
And go gets it, and wants it for his own.
A broken-off axe handle behind the door
Is long enough for a hatchet,
We cut it to length and take it
With the hatchet head
And working hatchet, to the wood block.
There I begin to shape the old handle
With the hatchet, and the phrase
First learned from Ezra Pound
Rings in my ears!
“When making an axe handle
the pattern is not far off.”
And I say this to Kai
“Look: We’ll shape the handle
By checking the handle
Of the axe we cut with—”
And he sees. And I hear it again:
It’s in Lu Ji’s Wên Fu, fourth century
A.D. “Essay on Literature”-—in the
Preface: “In making the handle
Of an axe
By cutting wood with an axe
The model is indeed near at hand.”
My teacher Shih-hsiang Chen
Translated that and taught it years ago
And I see: Pound was an axe,
Chen was an axe, I am an axe
And my son a handle, soon
To be shaping again, model
And tool, craft of culture,
How we go on.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Tools and Their Significance
02:06 Categories of Tools: Understanding Their Functions
11:14 The Right to Repair: A Cultural Movement
17:34 Exploring Relationships Through Craftsmanship
27:36 The Wisdom of the Hands: Crafting and Connection
30:56 The Nature of Perception and Reality
32:23 The Role of Hands in Creativity
36:10 The Subconscious and Skill
41:02 Art as a Holistic Experience
43:54 Material as Mediators of Meaning
47:17 The Priesthood of Creation
53:23 Tools as Angels and Priests
57:23 The Consequences of Abandoning Tools
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