Fears
Often times when I am hours into the more mundane and mindless tasks like sanding, or turning countless of pens on the lathe, it gives me plenty of time for deep thought. If anyone tells you they enjoy sanding they are surly lying to you. It is one of my least favorable parts of woodworking, however it is nice to have uninterrupted time with my thoughts. Lately, when it is just me and my thoughts I keep landing on the area of fears. This includes fears of all kinds, but I suppose they all boil down to the fear of failure. I am not, necessarily afraid of failing on a project. Nervous at times that I may struggle to reach the end goal? Sure. Worst case scenario if I encounter failure durring a project it will simply cost me time and occassionally money. But, failure in that sense in not a fear of mine. I am confident enough in my basic abilities and my natural curiosity that I know I will figure most things out. The opportunity to learn something new and hone my craft is what keeps me interested in woodworking. That, and the feeling of pride when a project is completed.
When I am truly honest with myself, what I fear most is not being able to instill the same confidence and curiosity in my children. Of course I would like my children to enjoy woodworking. I mean who wouldn’t want their children to share common interest. If they were interested in woodworking it would be a breeze to bond with my kiddos. But even if neither of my children show no interest in woodworking I still hope I can at least help them to be curious and not be afraid to fail.
My wife likes to call my daughter Laura “Our little engineer”. As we watch Laura, it is easy to see how tenacious she is, and how she will work on something till she figures it out. Although, it is still a work in progress, I have created a toddler activity board for her, in hopes that it will help her critical thinking skills continue to grow.
I know there will be a time in both my kids life where they will be afraid of failing, especially in front of their peers. I hope that somehow we are able to minimize the impact other kids will have on our children and keep their spark of curiosity alive…. and if I am really lucky, they will both find the same joy in woodworking as I have.
Here is a pic of an activity board I used for inspiration. Eventually the board I am working on will more closely resemble this one.
