Arch wrote:

SNIP

As for rcw resolutions. I resolve to reread an _entire post four times
before assuming it's in mean spirit or an insult. I will understand
that humor that disrespects another turner is not welcome here. I will
realize that I don't know it all about turning wood and in the scale of
things, I actually don't know much, but whatever I think I know I will
share gladly with anyone. I will really believe that "Manners Maketh
Man"....and congenial turners. I hope to keep my resolutions with some
degree of grace, but I'll sure need your help in the months to come.

Happy New Year from my shop to yours.


Beautiful. If you don't mind Arch I will just make your resolutions
mine, too. The one thing that I will add for me is to turn more often
as my flat work and repair work has swamped me this year and I haven't
made that much play time on the lathe. I need to do it for me, but
also for the good it can do others. Here's why:

I have an aunt that is certainly one of the nicest people I have ever
met. Not having a mean bone in her body, she is also one of those that
has been tested in this life beyond the limits that most people can
endure, starting with the loss of her husband when she was in her late
30s. She is now 81. She has raised three kids by herself along with
pulling strenuous grandmother duty, and in addition has been taking
care of her own mother who is now right at 100 for almost 30 years.
Just imagine all the physical illness (hers and others), the loss of
loved ones, and the pain she has endured over the years.... and yet
she never complains. (She is scary like that... I mean NEVER
complains...)

She had emergency angioplasty 2 weeks ago as she was 90% or so blocked.
She didn't want to go in since it was Christmas and she felt like a
lot of people were relying on her for fixing a special meal, decorating
the house, etc. But she had no choice, she was a walking time bomb.
So she went in, and the surgery was very hard on her, and the recovery
was much longer than expected. When I talked to her on the phone, she
was uncharacteristically low in spirits, not complaining mind you, just
low.

So this year at Christmas I sent her a lamp I had made from spalted
maple, nothing too special to one of us, a short squatty piece made
with wide shoulders to show off the grain. I used one of the lamps
from Craft Supply that they sell as their confetti lamps, the same fit
ups I have used in the lamps I sell every Christmas to feed the turning
tool monster that lives in the lathe.

I put a note inside to tell her that what I wanted her to do was to
light the lamp whenever she wanted, but most importantly when she was
feeling down. Then she could look at the light from the lamp and
remember how many people love and care about her.

I got a call the day she got it (still a kid at heart, she opened the
gift I mailed her instead of putting it under the tree for Christmas)
to thank me. She was so choked up at times I couldn't understand her,
and she thought that could have been one of the most thoughtful gifts
she had ever gotten. I was more than a little overwhelmed at her
reaction, and a little numb to think that something so simple touched
someone in such a positive way. That really made my Christmas.

Needless to say, I will be making more lamps for other relatives. I
will make time to turn if for no other reason than to give turnings to
those I care about.

And in ending, I wish everyone a happy, safe, properous new year, full
of good health and positive thoughts!

Robert