If you’ve seen a few of our videos, you probably have already guessed that we aren’t afraid to get our hands dirty. That is who we are. We’ve learned the hard way that sweat is equity! This we’ve discovered over time. Not everybody gravitates to these kinds of tasks. But if nothing else, we hope we can at least make the case that good old hard work has its advantages. Maybe a couple examples can help:
- WORK IS PURPOSE-FILLED … Because we were actually created to work. The account in Genesis reminds us: ” … God put (Adam) in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” We are made to be stewards of where we live from the very beginning.
- WORK MATTERS ….. That truth was not lost in the life of Booker T. Washington! In his autobiographical work, Up From Slavery Washington tells of the condition of the 19th century plantation when freedom was declared to all who resided there.
He wrote, “When freedom came, the slaves were almost as well fitted to begin life anew as the master, except in the matter of book learning and ownership of property. The slave owner and his sons had mastered no special industry. They unconsciously had imbibed the feeling that manual labor was not the proper thing for them. On the other hand, the slaves in many cases had mastered some handicraft and none were ashamed and few unwilling to labor.”
Washington saw how the slave owner “lost the spirit of self-reliance and self help”. The slave owner did little and neglected teaching his many children, sons or daughters, any trade or skill.
It is not surprising that when he founded Tuskegee University, Booker T. Washington welcomed manual labor and the development of real world skills in his students.. He modeled and emphasized self help and self reliance. He and his students literally built the first few dozen buildings of the school with their own hands! Clearly, Booker T. Washington was the quintessential DIY guy!
Learning how to do anything is a step by step process. But it takes the steps and the know-how.
In our HOW To… videos, you’ll see how we get our projects done. And if any of that helps you in your DIY efforts – so much the better!