Handiwork

How often have you said with great glee, "I did it with my own hands!" Such an air of accomplishment floats around those words!

There is just something intrinsically satisfying about working with your hands.

Maybe it's the immediacy of it. Maybe it's the pride of doing something with no help from others.

Small children are delighted to be able to tie their own shoes -- to do it all by themselves. Older people enjoy a similar thrill when mastering a new skill.

But it isn't just new skills that yield this pleasure: yesterday I folded and stapled some booklets I had written, designed, fed through the copier, etc. I felt strangely successful when I completed the stack.

When I fold clothes from the drier and place them in drawers and shelves, I have such a feeling of completion and worth! (Yes, I know -- out of proportion joy. They are towels for goodness sake!)

I wonder if these simple pleasures are a reaction to the kinds of assignments most of us battle every day. Many of my daily tasks are collaborative; my part is a piece of the whole. It's hard to point to something and say that I (and I alone) did that.

I work with project teams and working groups and taskforces and committees. And as a result, I don't control the final product.

Also, in this "information age" so much work results in intangibles..... ideas, plans, messages, advice.

Occasionally, it's nice to do something visible, measurable with my own two hands.