The Woodcarver and the Sunk Cost Fallacy

If you studied economics, process engineering or are an enthusiast of popular psychology, you might have heard of the Sunk Cost Fallacy. It’s alive and well in woodcarving too. Sunk costs are costs you have paid and can’t get back. 

That’s fine if everything works out. But if the project just hasn’t been the success you wished for, the temptation is to keep trying to fix it. Sometimes it can’t be fixed. And that’s the sunk cost fallacy: The belief that just one more project revision will allow the Goony Bird Mk 29 to fly.

I knew the fallacy well. I called it “just one more cut.” The piece will work with one more cut to clean up that angle. Five cuts later, the chip carving is worse off than when I started. I was most familiar with it from chip carving because some of the balance and symmetry of a piece come from all cuts sharing similar geometry; if one facet is out of balance, the carving looks odd.

I saw it a lot more when I started teaching. I start my courses with chip carving to teach tool control and the importance of sharp tools. An occasional student could not stop cutting and adjusting. Rarely did any of this result in a saved piece of work. I described it to my students at WoodenBoat School as “just one more cut.”

Later, over dinner, an engineer in my class told me about the sunk cost fallacy. As I write this, I can think of an eagle I’ve carved that I’d love to take one more cut on. See, it’s pervasive.

Here’s some advice I’ve offered that applies well here:

•  First, turn the carving bottom for the top; how bad is the perceived defect? 
• Second, using a hand mirror, view the work from various perspectives; once again, how bad is the defect? 
• Third, put down the tools and work on something else for the rest of the day. Come back later. 
• Fourth, study the effect of the corrective cut before you do it. What are the chances of that cut fixing the problem? 
• Fifth, when realizing you’ve wasted hours mulling over ten minutes of carving, throw the junk into the kindling bucket and do it right. It’s harder to do the further along the piece is; I’m not telling you that I have no struggles with this.

So, Robert Elliot, a colleague of mine who produces gorgeous Windsor chairs, once scolded me that we can’t just throw everything that had a mistake away. We have to learn how to fix errors. That’s the value of the first steps, knowing what we did wrong, thinking about how it can be fixed, and evaluating if it’s worth fixing. Hopefully, we will learn enough to avoid repeat errors and the frustration of endlessly falling into the sunk cost fallacy. 

Zaida “sits” for her portrait

Although the steam yacht Zaida sits within the frame on the wall, it is not quite complete. More steel wool rubbing is needed on the oil-varnish finish, and the sails’ detailing needs recutting where final sanding is removed it. I also may gold leaf the filigree at the bow. But I needed a break from work and wanted to see how it looked hung the wall.

This is my second run at the Steam Yacht Zaida. I’ve used different techniques and am more satisfied with the outcome.
To be clear, I do not do scale models. This is neither flat art nor scale modeling. It’s very much in line with the 19th century Dioramas that sailors made of the vessels they served on.

Zaida was built in 1910 at the J.S. White yard In Cowes, England. I’ve shown her here as she appears in the builders drawing. The drawing suggested a seriously overrigged arrangement which included a square yard forward and the possibility of a large staysail amidships. I doubt she ever flew that much canvas since she is described as a twin-screw auxiliary schooner.
For this portrait, I’ve reduced the sail plan to something more modest for the deck division to handle. However, at 149 feet in length, she must have had a relatively large crew.

In 1916 Zaida became an auxiliary Patrol vessel in the Royal Navy, armed with six-pound guns. Unfortunately, she was sunk while on patrol near Alexandria that August.

What’s involved in making one of these portraits? First, research, then selective compression of what you will include, and then carving. Research may be as easy as using a builders illustration to figure out the lines for a small sailboat like a small sloop or catboat. But on a larger vessel, especially an older one, research may never yield the sort of completion you wish. For every ship for which a plan exists in a research library or online database, thousands exist only in grainy photos and magazine articles. Sometimes these are the most interesting.

background being leveled

The carving with some of the research material

carving mostly complete

final stages

After research, you must create a plan for the hull, sail, stacks, and other parts. Sometimes commercial parts exist, but other times it all must be fabricated. Then you can start carving, and in many ways, that is the easy part. The total number of hours? For Zaida, about five hours of research, five of design, and fourteen for carving. Finishing is about four hours. So Zaida required about twenty-eight to thirty hours total. Of course, all this varies depending upon the size, research required, and amount of carving and finishing.

A small sloop is relatively quick to do. And small sloops, catboats, and schooners make up most of the portraits. Something like Zaida is for stretching your skills.

Paper and Scissors

I found the wood sitting in the shorts at my favorite hardwood dealer. It was very dark, heavy, and dense. It was mahogany but so dark and heavy that I felt it was a wayward piece of Dominican, not Honduran. It was just what I wanted.
I wanted to create a banner with a distinctive font, Barnhard Modern. I also wanted to give the banner a center and ends that undulate. The result was pleasing. At shows, people run their hands over the banner as a sensual experience, precisely what I wanted.

How do you do this? You must carve banner ends to appear delicate when viewed from a distance. But up close, there needs to be enough heft that they’ll stand up to the abuse they’ll get on a boat’s transom. For a show display, you have to compromise. People are way closer to the carving than they would be in another boat.

Many banners have curvature, but in most, the area which is lettered is flat. On MANDALAY, the field of the lettering undulates. So, the lettering does not stay in the same plane while laying it out or carving it. To experiment with this, I advise using wood no less than 8/4 in thickness. Any less will be too thin for the effect to work.

First, I carved the banner with all its curves and undulations. It’s essential to control your pleasure in removing wood. Easy. Remember that the effect comes from the smoothness of the curves and contours. Abrupt changes will ruin the look. Periodically take a break to place it in natural light. Turn it upside down and see if the movement of the wood flows.
For lettering, you have several options: Old School layout by hand; or New School computer layout in vinyl or paper. I chose a compromise between hand layout and computer layout on paper. The key to the paper template here is that the paper is flat, and the surface is not – hence the title: Paper & Scissors because cutting the paper will allow you to follow the undulating surface.
To follow the undulations, you slice the areas between the letters to get them to lay in the correct planes. As you layout, you also need to adjust the kerning ( distance between the letters). When completed, take the design into natural light, turn it upside down, and check to see if it still looks proportionate and balanced. I left this for a day and returned to it fresh the next morning; rested eyes see mistakes. I also find that taking photos on my phone reveals things my eyes sometimes miss.

After the layout was complete, the letter carving was like any other letter carving project. The finish is about eleven coats of Captain’s Z-Spar rubbed out after the first three priming coats and each succeeding one. The lettering I painted with One-Shot yellow sign paint. Two thin coats are better than a single thick covering.

Although gold leafing is an entirely separate topic, I advise that you do yourself an enormous favor and allow the varnish to cure before gold leafing. Remember that’s cure, not dry. Varnish manufacturers will tell you that varnish dries in twenty-four hours. But that is not the same as curing.

Gold leaf has a nasty tendency to stick to anything. But especially uncured varnish. I frequently allow a week or more for the varnish to cure; move on to another project, and come back later to apply gold leaf.

Acorns to Oaks*

We all want to be instant experts. One of my sensei describes this in terms of the training montages that are standard fare in martial arts movies; the neophyte progresses from clumsy beginner to skilled pro in thirty seconds of cinematic snapshots. The rest of us suffer from dissatisfaction and disappointment from being less than optimal for much longer.
Not every time, but more frequently than I’d like, I get confronted with the unique. And, all of a sudden I am a neophyte once more. Incorporating new materials, using new types of paints, complex constructions, and most especially very small parts that need fabrication all create confrontations with the problematic.

When I was doing banners, quarter boards, transoms, and the odd eagle, the problems were mostly mechanical – design layout, curvature to fit, and calculating shadows in carved lettering.

Boat and ship portraits offer many more issues. I am presenting a practice piece of the very first boat portrait I ever did. Remember, practice pieces are exactly like the rough sketches you do of a subject before you paint – the practice is to work out the approach, shapes, and rendering before you start the actual work. Being that carving is subtractive, this saves you from ruining expensive wood and wasting time.

practice carving of a 19 foot Eltro for a mast hoop portrait

Over the years, I’ve done many portraits. I’ve borrowed techniques from model makers, painters, and illustrators. I’ve also had to develop some tricks of my own. The single most important thing will seem trite: challenge is what differentiates those who are growing from those who are standing still intellectually and as artists.

Principal carving is complete, finishing the coaming and adding some details are all that’s left before fitting into the hoop.

There are about two years between my first practice piece and my rendering of a cat boat for a mast hoop portrait. Principal carving is complete, finishing the coaming and adding some details are all that’s left before fitting into the hoop.

Easy Pieces

I admit that the sort of non complex carving that happens when I carve a small bowl is pretty alluring. No antsy detail. No pattern that needs to be followed. Just follow the will of the wood.

today I put up a new page on the site for hand carved bowls, but thought that I’d spend a bit of time taking about my favorites . I am kind of hoping that these do not sell at next weeks show. I’ve made the mistake of getting attached to them.

Only a few inches around, the banding on the sides and interior, and the rough lip make this one a favorite just to hold and look at. Made from a piece of cherry firewood.

This second one was also from firewood. I love the subtle grain pattern and the rough lip.

This third bowl was from a slightly larger piece of cherry firewood. I had enough wood to form a bit of a handle. I went experimental and charred the interior with a torch. Before finishing you scrape off most to the char, leaving just blackened wood. There are slight defects in the wood that in my mind make the piece even more interesting.

I’ve done a number of others, and like them, but these are my favorites.

New and Old

We can easily get lost in the weeds talking about tradition in crafts. It’s just hard to avoid observing that technology casts long shadows when you make something and call it traditional. The majority of shops that work with wood use bandsaws, table saws, and jointers. These tools have been around long enough not to ignite a vendetta among purists looking for “traditionally crafted goods.” But the technological landscape is always changing for the craftsperson.
Recently I have been nosing about on the borders. A few years ago, a series of eye surgeries compromised my ability to do certain types of woodcarving, mostly lettering. After surgery, I began to explore what I could and couldn’t conveniently do. The vision changes prompted the carving shop’s move from the old basement workshop into the greenhouse – I needed lots of light. Last year I also began to play around incorporating laser engraving and cutting as an adjunct to my carving.
Some things worked well, and others fell flat. Frankly, it’s all a work in progress. The small sign shown above is one of the projects that worked. Some of the others wound up feeding the woodstove.
Is it traditional? Well, was it traditional when craftspeople and artists began using acrylic paints or using computers to assist them in design?

Years ago, when I worked as an anthropologist, I knew a woman who crafted the most incredible Ukrainian Easter eggs. One afternoon over coffee Elizabeth introduced me to the history of technological innovation in the world of decorated Easter eggs. Over the centuries, dies and methods of preparation changed. But the community accepted the eggs because of the continuity of design and meaning in the community.
Back in the ’80’s colleagues were musing about Cambodian kite makers shifting from traditional fabrics used in Cambodia to the ripstop nylon available to them here in the United States. The maker of traditional Cambodian dance costumes received mention also. One of them had adopted the hot glue gun and factory-made jewelry findings to construct elaborate headdresses and other costume bits. They looked like the old style, but the components and techniques had evolved.

On one project I worked on years ago with boatbuilders, I asked builders what they thought was the central concept that defined the traditional boat. I had expected them to talk about materials, construction techniques, and design. I wasn’t disappointed because they all mentioned those things to one degree or another, but as a group, they said the value placed on the boat by the community that used them was central. One well-known figure I interviewed ( Lance Lee) suggested the term “cherish” as the central concept – the boats were cherished and valued by the community. It was the community of users that made something traditional.

The laser engraver that sits in the basement, and my visual handicap, got me thinking about these things. The concept of craft, especially when labeled traditional, has some minefields laid in it for the artisan. Look beyond technology to intent, the community’s acceptance of the product, and the continuation of design tradition. Sometimes we might be daunted by what we see, but the first carver who moved from a stone or bone tipped tool to one of metal started us on the moving process of technology in arts and craft.

New York Pilot Boat 5

This chest was not in stock long enough for me to do a proper set of photos. It sold at it’s first appearance at the Maine Boatbuilder’s Show to a pair of Boston Harbor pilots who were going to give it as a retirement gift to a colleague. The chest itself was of fairly common pine with teak keys for strength and decorative effect.
The top though, that’s some pine of a different pedigree. The pine tree was felled by the great hurricane of 1938. At the time it came down, it had been the tallest tree in the town of Shirley, Massachusetts. Very probably old growth, the entire top was just a segment of the plank I purchased from the retired dairy farmer, who, in true Yankee fashion, refused to let such a good tree go to waste and made it into planks.

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The pilot boat itself was pilot number 5 from New York Harbor. Pilot boats had to be extremely fast and able, and this design shows a flexible sail plan and sweet lines. Somewhere I have a slew of pilot boat designs but have not had an opportunity to carve another. Beautiful boats like this are hard to resist.

for a more recent look into New York Harbor pilotage take a look at Tugsters post of a pilot boat mothership: https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/72558/posts/2868136611

Wood

Wood occupies a central part of our lives. We love our cherry spoons, Mahogany cabinets, and teak deck chairs. As consumers, there is much that you don’t know about your favorite woods.

Smell:

Ash has a sweetish odor, that is uniquely distinctive when you saw it or burn it. Fresh red birch has a scent that takes you back to the best root beers you’ve ever had. Cherry bark smells like tasty cough syrup. And oak has an earthy odor to it. If you work with fresh-cut timber, these are some of the sensations that the tree shares with you, and which the uninitiated remain unaware.

Color:

Love the look of mahogany, the beautiful color of cherry, or walnut? The tree didn’t add them for you. Trees live in a highly competitive environment where organisms are always attacking the tree, looking for a meal. To deter the attacks, trees deposit chemicals into their wood that inhibit insects, bacteria, and fungi. After we cut the timber, those chemicals give us the coloration and some of the wood’s durability.

Toxicity:

Some woods are toxic to us. A wood called Pink Ivory is lovely to look at but is dangerous because of the chemicals in the wood. In use, it needs sealing before it’s safe for us to use. 

Woodworkers need to be especially aware that the dust caused by sanding some species is irritating. Mahogany and teak fall into that category. Not everyone is sensitive, but wearing protective gear is an excellent way of avoiding dermatitis or respiratory issues.

Food Safety:

Normally most of what I’ve mentioned is not too important to the average consumer. There is one area to aware of, and that is treen. Treen ( derived from the word tree) are objects like spoons, spatulas, bowls, and the like. Being that we handle food with them, the potential toxicity should be considered. In North America, woods normally considered food safe are woods like maple, fruitwoods (cherry, plum, pear, and apple) birch, and poplar. I’ve used ash for cutting boards, but not for spoons because it has alternating summer and winter woods ( ring porosity) and might absorb odors and flavors when immersed. Oak, while not toxic, is ring-porous, and can impart it’s earthy taste to foods, so I do not use it.

You might notice that I have not included walnut on my list. I am rather certain that it is food safe, but I rarely use it because there are a good number of people with walnut allergies.

Spalted wood is wood with the patterns of decay caused by fungus visible on the wood. It’s beautiful to look at, but there is a significant debate as to whether or not it is food safe. I do not work with it, in part, because there is a respiratory risk to the woodworker from the spores of the fungus. Yes, many woodworkers claim that the spores can be killed by microwaving or heating the wood. It’s just not a risk I take.

Exotic woods. I stay away from them. For many, there are question marks regarding their food safety, and being that I used to sell commercially, I had product liability to worry about.

If you have questions about any of this, write me, and I’ll try to formulate an intelligent response.

Favorites

My father’s favorite ship was the S.S. President Tyler. He sailed aboard it whenever possible from his first voyage around 1932 till he came ashore in 1946, the year I was born. Several World and Asian cruises made him a genuine China Sailor.
Sailors, merchant or naval, can have deep relationships with their ships. Call it loyalty, affection, longing, or call it what it really can be – romance. I know, I have an ache for a certain ketch I’ll never see again. Women are known to jealous of ships and boats. My first mother in law was jealous of the Cap’ns Psyche. For the sake of peace, she hid it well. My mother was not so diplomatic about my father’s love of the sea, and “that ship.” She had been a sea widow throughout their marriage and two pregnancies. Like many sea widow’s, there came a time when the husband was expected to “swallow the anchor.” More than a few arguments ended with my father threatening to go to the hiring hall and “look for a ship.”
So growing up, the Tyler was a sensitive issue. We’d regularly drive along the Hudson River to where the reserve fleet was anchored. He was looking for the Tyler. My mother was never on any of these excursions.

I had seen my father’s pictures onboard the Tyler, But I had never seen a photo of the ship itself. My mother was famous for editing her life, so it’s more than likely that she disposed of those photos when she threw out dad’s cruise scrapbooks. For her, those were not good times.

Many years later, I was teaching marine carving at the WoodenBoat School in Maine. Teaching at WoodenBoat is not just an opportunity to learn. It’s an opportunity to grow as a person through the freindhips formed with the individuals you meet there. One year one of my students was a former Master Mariner who worked for the American Bureau of Shipping. We talked about ships one night, and I told him all that I knew of the Tyler and my father’s affection for the ship. I mentioned that I’d love to carve a portrait of the Tyler but could not find enough data to start the project. I thought no more about the conversation, and at the end of the course, said goodbye to my students and returned to Massachusetts.

About three weeks later, a large envelope arrived from the ABS (American Bureau of Shipping). In it was were copies of plans and articles relating to the class of vessel to which the Tyler had belonged; enough to start the portrait. My student had searched the ABS library for the documentation that I needed.

The Tyler was my first large portrait. I can now look at it and see a dozen things that I would and could do differently with twenty years of experience carving portraits. But when you finish a project it’s best to move on, or you’ll never finish.

It sails on my wall with a cherry ocean and sky heading east from Japan or China towards Los Angelos. I think my father is pleased that his ship is restored to an essential place in our lives, through the unexpected kindness of a fellow seaman.

Eagle Eyes

While teaching, I always like to decorate the workshop with carving examples for students to use as a reference. Week-long excursions to teach away from home mean emptying the house of many of my carvings. But samples in three dimensions often are better than pictures or demonstration, and the extra work was worth it.
During one summer course, A student was working on an eagle and suddenly stopped, got up, and went over to an eagle billet head. He picked it up and turned the head away from him. Noticing me watching, he shrugged his shoulders and said: “it was watching me.”
Smiling, I pointed out that he was perfecting the eagle’s body plan and feathers without working on the head, most notably the eye. He asked me why it mattered, and I told him that it was essential to fair the contours of the head and neck into the body, so the eagle looked all of one piece when finished. The head is temporarily attached to the body with a screw while you carve the neck fair to the body.
” But why was it watching me?”
Well, I explained, years ago, while I was first carving eagles, a talented carver from Boothbay Harbor advised me to always start the head before detailing and finish the eye first. There was a practical reason for this. The eye was a delicate piece of work, and if not done right could ruin the whole birdie. He then added that he had been taught to do the eye first so the eagle could oversee the carving’s remainder. ” As I was taught, so am I teaching you.” I then turned the eagle about so it’s beady eyes were on the student. ” Being that you haven’t done the eye first, this birdie’s cousin in watching you.” I can be a first-class pain sometimes.

I carved the eyes on that particular eagle with a “tunnel” eye effect. With that manner of carving, you could get the impression that the eye watches you and moves with you. To someone easily spooked, like my student, it could be an unpleasant sensation.
There are several ways to carve eagle eyes for traditional marine eagles. Please note that if you carve more realistic styles, these will not appeal to you. I’m a nineteenth-century carver stuck in the twenty-first century. Be all modern if you like. Another ships carver reminded me that most people do not get close eough to smell the eagle; all these things in full size are meant to be viewed from a distance. Here are some examples of eyes:

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Twentyone

“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The problem with imagination is that it’s boundless. On the wall is a poster telling you that you can do it if you can imagine it. Don’t take it too literally.

Aspirations aside, there are some things only possible with loads of tricks, like telling fortunes. My friend Bill had picked up some tricks of the psychic trade from working with a con artist we knew as John. Bill had a natural talent for reading people, and with the card and vocal tricks he had picked up from John, he was soon a favorite among the weekend influx of suburban kids that regularly hit the Folkie Palace. 

From fortune-telling with the kids to doing it at the Harvard Gardens for beer was a natural progression. “Imagine.” he told me- “I’m doing well while doing good.” At first, he restricted himself to doing readings for friends, but as he grew more confident, he branched out. Lovelorn young ladies came to be a specialty. One attractive woman decided that she wanted Bill’s services exclusively. He demurred politely. She grew insistent. He explained that he was married. She slapped him and walked out.

Not too much later in walked police Sargent Cappucci with the young woman behind him. We all stood up to give Bill the needed cover to run out past the men’s room and the back door into the alleyway. Knowing that Bill and I were best friends, I got collared. “Tell your little buddy that I ‘m looking for him. Playing with the affections of my niece is something I won’t tolerate.” He shoved me into the booth, and away they walked. Him fuming her crying softly. “His niece.” Said the Teahead of the August Moon. ” Sweet. Bill can always find some way to get us into trouble.”

For the next couple of weeks, we were not in good favor with the residents of Grove Street. It seemed that the entire street attracted more casual police attention than usual. Squad cars were cruising by. Officers were poking around. It curtailed summer parties and other activities. It became common knowledge that we were the cause of this attention. As a group, and as individuals, we got uninvited from everything happening in the neighborhood. People avoided sitting near us in the Harvard Gardens. 

Bill suffered from none of this. He had departed for Baltimore right after the trouble at the Gardens.

As is often the case, we don’t learn from our mistakes unless we suffer from their consequences. In this incident, only Bill’s friends have. So it came as no surprise that no one at the Folkie Palace was willing to contribute to paying the fine to get Bill out of jail in Baltimore.

He had been cutting into the action of the”legitimate” psychics in Downtown Baltimore, and they had tipped off the police. I hitched down, solicited as many of our friends as possible, and got him out.

He was a repentant, Bill. a Bill who promised never to tell a fortune again. Besides, while in the joint, he’d met this great guy who’d taught him how to count cards in Blackjack.

” Wes, have you ever been to Vegas?”

The Garden: favorite fruits

Growing fruit is not an armchair occupation. You purchase the plants, put them in the garden, and then you tend them. Sometimes, you harvest a bounty. But, honestly, sometimes things could work out better.

Among the earliest purchases I made for our garden when we bought our home was a cherry tree. Please don’t ask me which variety; that information is long lost. But the tree almost got chopped down because it failed to thrive and, most importantly, failed to produce. We decided to give it another chance and rather unceremoniously dumped it into a hole on the tiny (and genuinely awful) front lawn. We gave it an ultimatum to grow or else.

This was like condemning the tree to life in some far Siberian gulag. Nothing thrived on the front lawn, and calling it a lawn was a courtesy it did not deserve. Somehow, though, the tree settled in and thrived. Most years, barring freaky frosts when it is blooming, it produces enough cherries for our family and all the neighborhood birds, too. Prospects are that we’ll have a big crop this June.

This year, we’ve completed most of our high raised beds—30 inches high—to save wear and tear on my worn-out back and knees. This prompted me to buy new strawberry plants. I had given up on these sweet treats because the local chipmunks almost always got a bite out of the best berries before I could pick them. But with the berry plants raised high, I figured the little pests would go after easier stuff. Who knows? I might get some berries for myself this year.

Apples and pears do not require much care, but last year, we had so much rain that the apples were mushy and mostly composted. That’s too bad because homemade applesauce and apple pan dowdy are favorites in our house. 

Outside the fence is a northern spy apple that probably seeded from the orchard that occupied the site before the house was built. For years, it hid in the lilacs and roses alongside the street. Only when the lilacs started dying back did the skinny pole that was the apple become visible. It has steadily grown, and about five years ago, it began producing some hard but tasty apples. I’ve started pruning it, and I expect that over the years, it may become the best apple tree we have.

The pear tree has been old enough to bear for the past two years, and we are still uncertain how it will develop. In the fall, a basket of freshly picked pears is lovely to offer as a gift.

• Strawberries, an apple tree, and one of the blueberry bushes in the woodland garden.

Just about the only fruit that I love that I can’t grow are bananas. That did not stop me from trying to grow a banana tree inside. My cat Clancy, AKA The Grey Menace, frustrated my efforts. He decided that the tree was the perfect hideout for a jungle kitty to hide and spring out at unsuspecting humans. The tree did not flourish.

Where do I get most of my fruit? The supermarket, of course. We have a small lot, and there is only so much space for the fruits, vegetables, and woodland garden. Some years, we have surpluses, but other years, we only get token amounts. Gardening is about growing good food and being involved in nature. You gain nourishment from both.

Daily writing prompt

List your top 5 favorite fruits.

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Success

We are all probably familiar with the “snowball effect.” A tiny ball of snow rolling downhill picks up more snow as it progresses and finishes strong at the bottom of the hill as an avalanche. With people, it most often needs a bit more help than just the assist provided by gravity, but the general principle works well.

The problem is that many people believe in the power of the big and powerful—the power of a large storm rather than the endless small trickle of the stream. It’s so alluring. That big storm whips through and clears everything before it while the stream trickles and only slowly creates change. I’d argue that, most often, people need slow change over rapid. We can take our time seeing the landscape change; we are in control of our destiny and can put it in channels, adapt to it, and decide how we feel about it.

In contrast, the storm whipping through may bring refreshing chaos, but it requires the skills of a stuntman to survive. What’s left behind is a stripped landscape that has removed our old obstacles and much of what we wanted to preserve.

It’s essential not to deride the strength of the trickling stream. Over time, it changes landscapes and alters life. After nine previous attempts, I stopped smoking. All the previous attempts had been gradual buildups for the real deal. Just because you fail initially at something doesn’t mean you can’t build resources that eventually help you succeed. 

Take advantage of failure if it’s in the service of eventual success. Success can be built upon our gradual efforts. Refrain from relying on the storm.

Daily writing prompt

What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?

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The Woodland Garden –

a stream of consciousness Saturday presentation

The twists and turns of the short trails in the back of my house are miniature woodland garden with trails. I like, sometimes, to call them branches of the Warner Trail. The Warner Trail is a Trail in Southern, Massachusetts. For many years, I hiked the Warner Trail with my Friends, and after I returned from graduate school, I assumed duties as a co-leader on our annual series of spring and fall hikes along the trail.

My years along that trail were a journey that led from my early college years to summer returns during grad school to eventually walking the trail with my own children. That’s a long time.

Arthritis in feet and ankles gradually made ten-mile hikes into torture rather than a pleasure. But I can wander the path alone at home. This time of year, I have been pacing alongside the emergence of the springtime ephemeral flowers. Sanguinaria ( bloodroot) was first. Just a month ago, the first Trout lilies were in blossom, but they have already started there annual disappearing act. Trillium is coming soon, as is our little native geranium, wild sasparilla, and may apple. Woods phlox and violets are so discreet that you might miss them if you speed along your way, so take your time to enjoy them.

It wasn’t always this way. When we bought the house in 1997, the invasive vines covered everything so completely that you couldn’t even see the signs for the bird sanctuary that lay just beyond the property line. My kids first made me do something about the mass of vines. They wanted to dig a pond, and indeed, one day in the first spring we lived there, I came home from work one day to find the construction crew of my two sons and two daughters starting the excavation. I began clearing the bittersweet the following day. Working alone, I cleared the area by carefully pulling up roots and stems. I used chemicals only in the poison Ivy, which I sprayed and marked so the kids would stay clear.

I now had a large opening, and a neighbor offered the history. In the forty or so years they had lived next door, the previous owners had tried unsuccessfully to grow a lawn on the site, but it was too shady and rocky. In its earlier incarnation as agricultural land, it had been an orchard. With the pond taking shape, I decided on a woodland garden that took advantage of the adjacent refuge. The birds, frogs, and salamanders seemed to like the change.

These days, it is a predominantly native New England woodland verge. But every year, I have to do a bit of policing on the invasive bittersweet and barberry. I have reached a truce with the blue honesty flowers from someone’s earlier gardening. I have to accept the history of the plot. Just like I have to accept the fragments of a 1920s foundation for a garage on the site. A location is, to an extent, on loan to us, not something forever ours.

It is an attempt at rewilding the area, and I’ve succeeded. Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed that the plot is taking on a life of its own without my guidance. Plants are spreading, seeding into better-suited areas, or receding from others. I can now walk along the trails and be truly surprised at what nature is doing, not what I imposed. It’s time for me to do less, just the touch here and there to repel the violently disruptive invasives and leave the rest alone to be enjoyed.

Politics

On my last sprint through government employment, I got friendly with an aide to a Congressman. We had coffee and lunch and frequently socialized at functions his boss hosted. Hey, free food and good company. 

I also got to know his boss, who was not arrogant and seemed sincerely interested in doing good. A lot got in the way, though.

The congressman was always on a funding treadmill, constantly being pulled multiple ways on issues, and that was only when he was home in his district dealing with his constituency. Over time, I became acquainted with others on his local staff who handled constituency services. You have a problem, and you call your representative’s office. The person you speak to is a constituent service staffer. In this case, she fields the call and starts the ball rolling, attempting to resolve the issue or get you to someone who can help. These people get too little credit for all the work that they do.

Eventually, I also met some of the policy staffers. Your representative has a staff of people who study and analyze issues intently so they can keep them well informed. With the complexity of all the issues, one person would never sleep if they had to plow through the reports, articles, and briefs these people do. You have to be a bookworm to do the job well.

Both my friend and I moved on. His boss lost a reelection bid, and he lost his job, and my federal job was “reinvented” out of existence by Bill Clinton. He is back in the traces now, working for another Member of Congress, and I run a small television station and do some funky wood carving for my second business.

So, does my perspective on what goes on behind the scenes lessen my upset at what seems to be business as usual in Washington, D.C.? Somewhat, because I know real people are working on issues that affect constituent lives. 

Then I think back to the always-present treadmill of fundraising that everyone is on or dependent on, and I see some of the whacko policy proposals and wonder if there wasn’t a better way to fund things. And if that might help to get more time for issues and policy, less on getting elected, and less empty drama.

Career Plans

Career plans—as if life will let us shape our way as we wish. Now, don’t be miffed; I’m not insulting your plan to retire at thirty as a multi-millionaire, stay in shape playing golf, and living by the pool. But plans have a nasty way of becoming undone after they come in contact with things like poor health, a not-so-robust economy, or accidents.

The military knows this phenomenon well, so phrases like ” No plan survives contact with the enemy” are often heard. Dwight Eisenhower said it best when he stated that plans are of little value, but planning is indispensable. One is an inflexible document, and the other is a knowledgeable inquiry into the factors you have to face or overcome. In one, you are fixed in position; in the other, you are flexible and ready for changing circumstances. Planning implies preparing for a multitude of possible outcomes. While sticking to a plan implies straight, unilinear development.

Good luck with the plan, but remember, in the words of the Ancient Romans – ” Stercus Accidit” (shit happens).

Daily writing prompt

What is your career plan?

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Arias, Again!

She found the music and lyrics left by H.I.M. Xenia, Empress of all she surveyed. I thought I had safely relegated those to the garbage after Xenia died. But a dedicated cat leaves no trash bag untorn in her search for cat operatic fame, and Sabrina found them.

Once again, the staircase rings with crystal-clear renditions of ” I want my breakfast now!” and that perennial favorite, “It’s 4:30, and your kitty is starving!” These are not perfunctory performances. Sabrina aspires to diva status and understands that practice is needed every damn morning.

Just when I had begun to sleep a little later in the morning!

Daily writing prompt

What was the last live performance you saw?

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Sleigh ride

I’ll admit that it’s not rational. But for me, it is revolutionary.

I spent an entire career heavily involved in communities as an applied anthropologist, editor of a local newspaper, again as an anthropologist, and, more recently, as a director of a local television station. Now that I am in my seventies, I am backing away from too much involvement in the community in favor of my family, my garden, and my artistic interests.

Am I not involved anymore? No. I am just realizing that running off to every meeting, function, or involvement in every festival is no longer something I need to do.

Years ago, a close family friend with whom I worked on many projects told me about an old Polish saying that “…the same few horses always pulled the heaviest sleigh.” It took years before I understood what the saying meant.

After a while, you realize there need to be limits.

work!

Work is a topic that has been of professional interest to me for many years. A big focus of my time as a practicing anthropologist was program development for festivals and exhibits. I often interviewed and even worked alongside traditional craftspeople as part of my job. Those experiences did two things for me. First, they influenced my attitudes toward craft and the meaning of work. Secondly, it cured me of any desire to step into another’s shoes for a day and try their occupation. 

Many exciting-sounding occupations require enormous amounts of skill and patience. Your appreciation of them should include understanding how much goes into doing them competently. Without that, you will soon be out of the oven and into the fire on your day doing another’s job.

Let me give you an example.

Given my lifelong preoccupation with maritime matters, it was almost fate that I’d wind up working with boatbuilders. We decided to run a boatbuilding program at the Folklife Center, of which I was the director. Guess who advocated for that! 

It took only a short time to understand that all the books I had read on the subject had left lots out. When building a lapstrake boat ( a boat with overlapping planks as the sides) You must mount the planks accurately on the frame and over the preceding plank. This requires beveling and shaping each plank accurately before putting it in place. You have tools to help you shape the plank to a previously established line and angle. I was given this as an assignment, and I confidently measured and created the bevel. 

My friend Ralph, the boatbuilder, came over to check my work. He asked me to close my eyes, put my fingers on the bevel, and walk the length of the plank. I did as requested and felt every bump, valley, and unfair surface my eyes had missed.

We all can have Walter Mitty-style daydreams in which we create skillful works through plucky attitudes and our native creative abilities. But a bit of reality should temper the desire, lest we fail to respect the amount of knowledge and skill actually involved in actually doing the job.

Yeah. I know, I’m a real spoilsport!

Daily writing prompt

What’s a job you would like to do for just one day?

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Guitars

Let’s see: Martin, Gibson, Gretsch, Guild, and, of course, Harmony are my favorite brands of guitars. Sitting around me right now are the ancient Harmony and two Gretches. The Gibson is in storage, awaiting a trip to a luthier to fix an arching top. Even though I only rarely play these days, I keep my old bandmates close by even though my last regular gig was in 1975.

My last semi-legit gig was around 2002 when I was forced from retirement.

 An old friend died, and his wife wanted me to sing bawdy sea songs at the funeral. There was an intense period of practice and rehearsal. I chose the Harmony for the gig. It was my old traveling guitar, and I knew I could rely on it no matter the setting.

It was a tough house—old Coast Guard and Navy types who insisted they sang dirtier verses than I sang. The more staid types at the funeral got some education that afternoon. 

It took me back to the old days, and I thought of getting into the swing. But change is a brutal force to overcome. My booth space was already booked for three boat shows. I had orders to carve in the shop, a regular job, and family. No, this was not the year to leave retirement.

Maybe next year.

Daily writing prompt

What are your favorite brands and why?

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Good Advice- and how to get it

When asked if I should answer the question of who I admired and looked to for advice, my Magic Eight Ball replied,” Definitely yes.”

OK, the Magic Eight Ball and I have a history together. My sister had one when I was young, and I would “borrow” hers to ask endless questions. I rarely followed the advice, though. It was just fun to ask and see the answers to the ridiculous questions I posed.

It wasn’t until I was in the Navy and saw the Magic Eight Ball in action that I realized it was a serious tool. Life in the Navy was an endless round of idiot reports, logs, and queries. Making it look as though you were actually doing something constructive was important. The idea was to do this without too much strain. Therefore, the Magic Eight Ball, game spinners, dice, and other devices were regularly used to generate answers. It was called Gundecking*.

I was looking for more, and I’ve found it. 

After the Navy, I thought I had seen the last of this sort of stuff. But its modern-day equivalent has resurfaced in the form of AI. You can now find AI programs that will emulate famous historical personages. There is no need to ask your father or mother for advice. Now you can ask a simulated Napoleon, Socrates (I advise that you avoid the hemlock, young sir!), Winston Churchill, or Julius Ceasar.

Yep! Until now, you had to depend on real people for advice. That meant vetting them for character, or lack thereof, and reliability. 

A new company in Silicon Valley is working to extract the essence of fictional characters and place them online. Consider, if you will, that you need some advice on industrial espionage against a rival company. Who could be better to advise you than 007 himself, James Bond? Looking for help with the “bad boys’? Now you can tap the ex[pertise of Tony Soprano. Have a weird medical issue but get no respect from your doctor? Call on Dr. Gregory House – he’ll set them straight. Need help developing leadership skills? Call on Jon-Luc Picard.

You no longer need to deal with the questionable judgment of the people you’ve had access to until now. With a few keystrokes, you can access the A-list forum. Go with the flow and go, AI!

Operators are standing by!

*https://loucarrerascarver.com/2021/03/23/forms-and-procedures/

Daily writing prompt

List the people you admire and look to for advice…

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