98 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking October 2019 http://www.getwoodworking.com
FEATURE End-grain
G
nomes have acquired a poor
image. Real gnomes are not garden
ornaments loosely related to
dwarves; they are ‘knowing’ spirits
(from the Greek ‘gnosis’ meaning knowledge).
The tall hat illustrates an expanded brain: the
beard, the wisdom of age. This one looks as
though he’s hitching a lift, which is unfortunate.
Gnomes don’t need to hitch lifts. They don’t
actually move much at all (in this they are similar
to ornaments) but fade in and out of view
according to the viewer. Most people can’t
see gnomes because they think they don’t exist.
A principal reason why you are so successful
and talented is that you have opposable thumbs.
You can grasp things. Your foot with unopposable
big toes cannot. You can handle a paintbrush
(maybe) but not a branch – you’re no good at
swinging through trees (but you can hit the
ground running). Another reason is that you
have a big head: you can grasp ideas. Together,
your thumbs and your thinking make you a maker. © Edward Hopkins 2019
One of the earliest versions of you was Homo
Habilis. S/he used/created tools; specifically a
leather-scraper. We make things: that’s what
we do: it defines us. So what happens when
we don’t? And how many of us don’t? We throw
things away and buy more. We don’t sew our own
shirts. We don’t cook curry from scratch. When
did you last make a lampshade or a greetings
card, for example?
Homo Habilis evolved via Homo Sapiens (who
knows things, and could have been called Homo
Gnomo) to Homo Habitat (who buys things).
Along the way we lost the knack. In the lifetime
of superstores, they’ve gone from all-the-
ingredients-you-need to ready-made. And
from there to one-size-fits-all. Standardisation.
Conformity and uniformity with just enough
peripheral choice to make you think you have
something to do with it. Global manufacturers
decide for you. They choose. Who are they?
You are. We are. We buy into this, literally.
We succumb.Succumbing
Succumbing is not what thumbs are for. Thumbs
are for opposing. Thumbs-down means ‘no!’
Don’t buy these things. As much as I like a lot of
IKEA, I won’t become an IKEA showroom. Another
reason we stuck our heads above the evolutionary
parapet and lived to steal the day is individualism.
Egocentricity. Determination. Bloody-mindedness.
When you see footage of an old crofter living
in the Highlands knitting his own socks and
twiddling a fiddle on a Friday night, doesn’t a part
of you want to be that person just for an hour,
a weekend, or possibly a lifetime? You don’t know
what it means to spin your own yarn and make
your own soap. How much time it takes. How
calloused your opposable thumbs become. But
you recognise it as wholesome. It’s a romantic
scene, I know, but it is embedded within us.
We mustn’t let it dwindle. If we do, we become
less human.
Which is where (fairly obviously) woodwork
comes in. What a pastime! What a profession!
From the tiniest boxwood carving to the tallest
pagoda, how much more creative can a person
be? I don’t want to blow our collective trumpet;
I want to remind myself as much as you what
a privilege it is that we’ve found ourselves with
the ability to make things. It doesn’t matter what
they are. Nor how good they are. Creativity is
our engine, our drive.
We all have it, but to keep it working we must
use it. Not just in wood. Not just in wood and glass
or wood and metal. In food. Gardening. Music:
it’s never been easier to make music. Poetry:
you don’t have to be an angst-ridden teenager
to capture feelings in words (and you don’t have
to recite them in public); the act of creation is
enough. It exercises you. It authenticates you.
It validates you.The digital digit
What do most people do with their thumbs? I
don’t need to tell you. In a hundred years’ time
(unless mind recognition has taken over by then,
and what a minefield that will be!) our thumbs
will have mutated. They’ll become longer, faster
and more agile. Perhaps the pads will become
pointed. I hope mine do: I’m tired of hitting the
wrong key. And when I hit the right key, I’m tired
of predictive text guessing at what I’m trying to
say. I don’t want a slab of electronic chocolate
thinking it knows my mind. I’m even more tired
of it being right.
Creativity is by definition original. Don’t copy:
innovate. Progress. Develop. Look at the need/
the problem/the world with fresh eyes. Look
sideways, and upside down if you can. When
you do this, the creative motor, which will never
entirely seize up, will whir within you. You don’t
even have to do it to know that. Right now,
perform a thumbs down gesture about nothing
in particular and see how that makes you feel.
Dismissive. Depressed. Now give a thumbs-up,
and see what that does to your spirits. It lifts
them! Do it mentally all the time and they will
soar. That’s what thumbs are really for.THUMBS
UP
The secret of success