Well, the book I wound up grabbing to read while I was proctoring is called "The Same Ax, Twice: restoration and renewal in a throwaway age." It's by Howard Mansfield.

I originally read it several years ago as part of my preparation for a talk I was giving on the history of the conservation and restoration movement in the United States. I remembered it was interesting, and so I thought to read it again.

(I'm not actually a big re-reader. I tend to feel like there are so many books out there I want to read, and I have so little time to read them, that I'd rather spend my time reading something new to me. But then again, there are some books that speak to me, that confirm something I hold deeply. And those I do re-read.)

Anyway, it was interesting I chose it, given that Diann was talking about "why we knit" today.

There are a great many reasons why I "make stuff," - relaxation, fun, a way to pass the time - but there are also deeper reasons, and (if it's not pretentious of me to say so), spiritual reasons. And I think Mansfield understands that.

In the first chapter of his book, he talks about the regular restorations of "Old Ironsides" (the U.S.S. Constitution). (It makes me want to buy a plane ticket to Boston to go and see it...) Anyway, he talks about the men involved in the restoration - how they know it's something special, how they go to extra effort to get things just right - and to *write down what they are doing* or to teach younger people how to do it, so the skills (useless as they would be declared in your modern corporate world) do not die. And Mansfield says:

"We focus too often on the finished object, not on the craft to restore it. These things exist for us to revive. They call us back to a proper relationship with the world, to our home place. We don't have village gods, but we need ways to feel the spirit of a place. Restoration is our version of making an offering, getting closer to the animating spirits of wood, brick, mud. This is the closest thing we have to a pilgrimage - the kind where you bow down and pray at each step.

Each time we renew the meetinghouse steeple, replant a forest, heal an injured animal, teach someone to read, each time we do this we are restoring the live, the best in us as well. Mending the world, rebuilding it daily, we discover our better angels, We are on the side of life.

True living preservation is the baton passed, the handing off of skills, beliefs, and love. It is not mummification, it is not stop-time.

(page 10 from hardback edition; emphasis added).

Isn't that beautiful? To me, it makes me want to punch the air with my fist and go Amen! and fix stuff that's broken and run out and teach 400 people how to knit or make quilts or grow a garden...

"We are on the side of life."

what a beautiful world this could be if everyone chose that side...