I guess, if you are willing to live life with your head stuck in the
sand, I can only assume that that butt sticking up is your real face.
Man is not the only woodworker; a beaver builds a dam, and a bird
builds a nest, but what does the woodchuck chuck? Chuck???
Certainly, the dumb animals of the world utilize the basic material
for their very survival, but would you ascribe man to an equal state
of ignorant grace? The monkey has an opposable thumb; it is in
seeking the resources of knowledge and understanding that sets man
apart.
There is a spot reserved for you in the corner of the inane. See
Conan, he has your pointy hat...


You know what, DA? If I said that you were rude or arrogant or
anything like that, I was wrong. You are actually pretty funny! I
think the only thing you are guilty of is overanalysis paralysis,
that's all!

Yes, it is my opinion you think too much. That's okay, though.
Whatever floats your boat!

But I don't think you have any right to force any other person to
deleve into any subject any deeper than they want to go. And I do not
think you should get us to say "Yes" to you.

When you nitpick to the point of being ridiculous, it sort of forces
others to actually say "No" when you really want them to say "Yes" and
I see that happening here.

Oh, I know you will come back with some really snappy, Mensa-like
retort but, oh well, it is just something I will have to endure.



because I do believe there was a man who lived on this earth who DID
know everything that was and ever will be known about woodworking and
he was a carpenter who lived 2,000 years ago
If enybody knew everything there is to know about wood (and
woodworking and everything else), it was Him.

By invoking God in defence of your irrelevancies, you have accidently
struck upon a central theme in the assertation of what is living
trade. Those of us who believe in God would not deny His hand in all
that we think, say or do.
On your part, the assumption that Jesus, as the carpenter's son,
qualified himself as a woodworker is a fallacy. Otherwise, when
inquired of by the merchant...Ben Hur, 1956...Jesus would have been
there to finish the guy's table, but instead, was in the hills
contemplating his Father's business.


I know I started it and I don't want to go off on too much of a
tangent but I have to rebuke what you are saying. It is not a
fallacy. You are basing your biblical facts on a fictional movie made
in Hollywood?! Talk about shallowness!

First off, Jesus was a carpenter; a woodworker. I do not have the
actual documents at my fingertips but you can write to Chuck Colson at
Prison Fellowship Ministries for them but he reported that it was
discovered that some plows Jesus of Nazareth built were still used
over 100 years after His death. I am not going to go any deeper
becauseit may offend some people but I think you saying my assumption
is a fallacy is, well, a fallacy.


Hence, I maintain, that no two men may have the same knowledge or
understanding of working wood. It is an infinite phenomenon, and
thus, a living trade.

Here is how "The Merriam Webster Dictionary" published in Springfield,
Massachusetts and copyrighted in 1994 defines the word "TRADE" as it
is used as a noun:

1. one's regular business or work: OCCUPATION
2. an occupation requiring manual or mechanical skill
3. the person's engaged in a business or industry

I take it you are using the word "TRADE" (or "living trade") as a
noun.

As such, to nitpick, I would have to say that how you describe it is
absolutely not 100% true 100% of the time.

I have been in the IT business since 1978 when I was 17-years-old.
That is still the business I am in. Ain't never changed.

I have never used woodworking as a form of income. I have never sold
anything but I have made things for people and given the product to
them. It is far from my occupation, however.

And woodworking is something more and something less than what you
claim it to be. I, personally, use woodworking as a means of clearing
my mind. I don't WANT to necessarily think. I do that for 10, 11,
12-hours a day; sometimes 6 or 7-days-a-week.

When I go into the garage to mess around with wood, I use it as a
means of clearing my mind. There are times when I clamp a price of
scrap wood into the old vise, grab a hand plane, and scrape away. I
doitbecause I like the sond it makes. I do it because I like to see
the thin shaving fall all over. I like the smell of the wood. I like
the feeling I get in my hands, my arms, and my shoulders as I use the
hand plane. I like the way it allows my mind to, well, do nothing!
No thinking--just use it to enjoy what is happening at the moment.
When the price of scrap is gone, sometime I grab another and start all
over again.

I view woodworking, FOR ME, as a pasttime, not a trade. As such, I am
going to nit-pick and say that woodworking is not a living trade. For
me, woodworking is a way to pass the time and do something I find as
enjoyable--even if I am not making something.

I know you will morph a lot of my words and say I am agreeing with you
and I should just swallow my pride and say such but I don't.

If my shallowness annoys you, is it my problem?

If I don't agree with you, should I be flogged?

If a man says something and there is no woman around, is he still
wrong?


I think I will continue to view woodworking the way I always have: as
a nice way to pass the time and to have fun. I choose NOT to think
about it too much. If you feel that makes me something less than you,
well, that's the way it will be. I can't change that and I am not
going to work to hard to change your mind.