Crisp and sharp, great Fall beer! 4.5/5 stars.
You know how some skills just seem to stick with you? The old adage about “riding a bike” comes to mind. No matter how long you seem to leave it alone, it always seems ready to be dusted off and put to use. There might be some big cobwebs to shake loose, but you can count on it to stick after those first wobbly steps. For me, writing is like that. So is public speaking. Conversely, as I was reminded today, carpentry is not one of those skills.
I’ve had several opportunities to practice carpentry throughout my life. I assembled bird houses (and bat houses) in Boy Scouts, made projects in shop class, spent a little time in both of my grandfathers’ home workshops, and have made or mended things from time to time as an adult. For whatever reason, carpentry is one of those skills that my mind struggles to grasp each and every time, and I feel like I’m learning how to do it all over again whenever I start a new project. It’s not even the tools themselves; a saw or square feel self-explanatory and I can comfortably make them do what I need. Measuring isn’t a challenge, and my mental math skills are sufficient to what most home projects require. I tackle complex tasks daily at work by breaking them down into simple steps and lists and then execute each piece in series, so the process piece shouldn’t be a challenge. I have decent visualization skills, so I should be able to understand how individual components will fit into the whole. It isn’t even an issue of confidence; if anything I am typically overconfident in my abilities and have to do some additional Youtube research to figure out what I need to do. So, what is it about carpentry that leaves me feeling unintelligent and fat-fingered every time?
Today I even had some help in my project, building some simple storage shelves for my garage. Even with help and a “simple and easy” Youtube tutorial, this project made me feel like my brain was swimming uphill through molasses. Nearly every step seemed to take significantly longer than Youtube indicated (go figure!), and every time I would begin the next step I would need to re-visualize the whole project again because something didn’t make sense. I would expend so much mental effort that I would set down a tool somewhere different every time I used it. That meant I had to track down that tool again each time to be able to finish what I was working on. None of this was the fault of my dad, who was my helper for the afternoon, because I was leading the project and giving the orders. I was only frustrating myself, and getting in my own way.
Do you ever feel this way? I’m not talking about temporary mental fog that makes even mundane tasks feel extraordinarily difficult. I mean a particular skill that consistently eludes you, or only become marginally easier through painstaking effort and force of will. Theoretically, practice makes perfect. I know that many carpentry tasks and skills would come more quickly if I did them routinely. What I don’t know is if I could stand being bad at carpentry through what would undoubtedly be an arduous process of becoming… well, maybe not skilled or masterful, but possibly less bad? I think this will just be something that I can be satisfied with adequacy. After all, if I still have all of my fingers and toes at the end of a carpentry project, how bad can it be?
A Beer a Day 