• Home
  • About Jim
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Reviews
  • Order
  • Contact
  • Excerpts
JIM WARREN

Identity, Our Tool is Us

4/8/2020

0 Comments

 

 It was fall, the day I cranked up my Bearcat Shredder and munched and ground up my large pile of pruned branches and twigs to a pulp. I am old and feeble and have Rheumatoid arthritis but with my tool as an extension of me I am mighty. I am Marlboro Man employing a machine in a rugged activity that my forefathers at my age could have only dreamt about. I eventually ran out of gas at the same time as the Bearcat so we both called it a day.
      We all have tools that can be an extension of our arm, hand , leg or brain or also senses that make us explorers, visionaries, artists and rugged adventurers. Whoever said, " It's not what you do, but who you are." was not telling the whole story. We are creatures of our tools.
       In the olden days my father would watch my mother cut slices from her bread loaf. She exerted pressure,forcing the knife heavily on the loaf rather than deftly sawing at the loaf with light force. To be fair, she was always in a hurry. Her slices always ended up being crushed to an inch high. My father would look at us and intone, "  Let the tool do the work."  Good advice!
       When the first primate or the first crow used the first tool to do a job that they had previously used an arm or a beak to do, they began the process of advancing to a new identity that separated one from another. The artistry displayed by the operator of the excavator is astounding, who with his hand and foot working harmoniously together can accurately pick up either a small pebble or a one ton rock with his bucket. The machine has become part of the body. With time and skill the tool incorporates into the organism so there is no space in between the two. There is an area on the gyrus for the tool.
      Whether the golf club, the hockey stick, the brush, the egg whisk, the ivory keys, the strings, the chalice, the pottery wheel or the scalpel, when you have arrived at that golden moment when you are one with your tool you will no longer see yourself apart from it.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Jim Warren's
    Blog

    Jim Warren is the author of "An Elderly Eclectic Gentleman" and "A Braided Cord," available on FriesenPress.

    For Jim's past posts, check out his old blog here:
    Elderly Eclectic Gentleman Blog

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly