Things Made Well

Growing up in an oddball homeschooled family, I have a great love of well-made objects. I enjoyed seeing anything made really well out of leather, wood, whatever it might be. I got into historical sewing because I saw that I could perhaps make things well. I would not have been interested for the sake of costuming- I don't want it merely to look right, I want it to be the actual thing itself.

It is a little like Plato's ideals. I have always cared enormously about the actual thingness of a thing. The idea of it, the spirit of it, what it actually is, which is wrapped up in all of how to use it well, what it is really for, everything. And the variety of Things, and the variety of Things within a category of thing, is what makes life so very lovely. I got passionate about it when I was a living, breathing teenager, but since then my emotions have dulled.

There is nothing better than seeing a shoe (to get an example) that is made so well it isn't likely to fall apart unless you use it as it isn't intended to be used. Something made within an inch of its own death, made so well it will last, made of materials that won't go 'out of fashion', made in a style that won't go out of fashion, and so on. Something that lasts, that is useful, and is also beautifully made. Smooth, warm brown oiled leather, thick waxed linen thread, carved, shapely wooden heel (perhaps bound in leather)...

The characteristic I desire in everything I do is well-made-ness. The goal is always to head towards the beauty of perfection. We are here as stewards of this world to seek the best that we can do with all things. When we destroy, we create from it something new, something beautiful. Out of the ashes the phoenix is born. Out of our own darkness a great beauty is created; the birth of wisdom and experience. The well-made-ness is in every part of life. I seek it in every action I can do (when I am not being taken over in the style of The Screwtape Letters). And I must surrender myself to God's making me perfect... must surrender the control of keeping myself just the way I am, keeping myself in comfort and entertainment, in ease.

We only have freedom when we are completely, fully able to partake of creating out of the materials of this world (and ourselves; we are also stewards of ourselves). When we acknowledge we are stewards of this world in the way God made it and intended it to be, the ability to make things intensely beautiful is opened to us. We must look on the world as it is. This world is not cheap, not hastily thrown together. This world is a masterpiece (though broken and not as it should be now), and what we make in it ought to be a masterpiece as well.

It is hard for me to bear living now, when things are made so cheaply and to make things cheaply is not particularly minded. I have very high standards, and I'm not about to relax them. It is a good challenge to have on my head that I must try to do everything extremely well, and besides, I won't do it all well because I am an incredibly lazy person at heart. I really enjoy the strength of the challenge hanging over me, the sense that it gives me that I am really not all I crack myself up to be (because I am constantly cutting corners). It gives you a healthy sense of your own position in reality when you are not always managing what you intend to manage.