On 16 May 2004 10:42:12 -0700, (D. A. Clark)
wrote:

wrote in message
so if I understand the issues correctly, you really are a troll.

He who posts off-topic is the troll, that would be most of you.

as I see it, you started a thread that was almost, but not quite
completely off topic, framed it in such a way as to ensure few would
figure WTF the question was, defined terms in such a way as to
obfuscate the point and jumped on anybody who pointed this out.

looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, quacks....



It is nice that Larry has bought himself some wood for a personal
project, but that is not the topic. On the other hand, in visiting
his website, I find a short dissertation of his personal feelings
while working wood, and that would be part of the philosophy and
psychology of living trade.
Working wood evokes emotion, from the murky depths as Larry would say,
of a man's being. Yet, that is not the whole story either, but
rather, just tip to the iceberg. There are global implications to
what most of you treat as mere hobby, spending countless hours and
dollars for very little result.

why does anyone do anything?





Answer this, if you have any understanding...what could be the
underlying purpose of man's emotional response?

it's a part of being social mammals. it's about communication, on a
level somewhere a bit deeper than language. it keeps us from killing
and eating our young, which is a good thing for social mammals. it's
wired in deep, man, so deep that it's really difficult to analyze what
it is and why it's there, especially using cognitive functions that
are "higher" than emotional response...


it's also WAAAAY off topic for this forum.....






Why do men work wood,
whether they are paid to do so or not?
daclark


the working of wood is one of our base technologies. like weaving,
cooking food and making maps it is something that must be developed in
order to build a complex civilization. why do we do that? beats me,
but we sure do...

being a base technology, we will return to it time and again. it sits
there in our subconscious and feeds our minds principles and metaphors
that show up in diverse and seemingly unrelated endeavors. while we
are not without alternatives to wood for materials with which to
construct the acouterments of this complex civilization that we have
built for ourselves, wood appeals to us on a number of levels. it's a
material used by our ancestors, and humans are nothing if not suckers
for sentimentality. it's also a pretty good material for lots of
things. it has a sweet strength to weight ratio. it has failure modes
that are fairly predictable. coming from a living thing it gives us a
connection to nature. it's easily worked with fairly simple tools.

people like making things. we're just wired that way. it comes from
walking upright and having hands with opposable thumbs. we do it for
pay because there exists considerable demand for things made by people
with specific skills. such is the nature of complex civilizations. we
do it for recreation because whatever we do for pay provides
insufficient stimulation to that part of our psyches that runs on the
principles and metaphors of woodworking.

in short, we can't help it.