I won!

I’m so geeked! I just won Peak Oil Hausfrau’s valentines day contest! I chose Insulate and Weatherize: Expert Advice from Start to Finish. I’m looking forward to learning a lot from it. I’m finding that I really like doing home improvements. The careful measurement and planning and executing a plan to create something new for our lives. I really like working with my hands.

It’s funny, in school I was in the smart kid track. Doing things with my hands like construction or art were subtly discouraged, I was told that anyone could do that kind of work. The implication was that as a “smart person” I should be focusing on getting a fancy degree and making a tidy income. Now coming from a perspective where economic downturn is a reality, peak oil is either here or swiftly approaching, and the consensus is that climate change is a Bad Thing, I worry that this attitude is hurting us and encouraging people in ways that will not give us the skills we need as a culture. I believe that local economies are going to become increasingly important and I see this attitude that smart people should stick with “professional” jobs to be really counterproductive. I think some of the most useful and innovative technologies I’ve seen have come from hands on jobs. Elliot Coleman’s forays into winter gardening open new options for year round local food in the north. Bill Mollison’s reimagining of agriculture into permaculture leads the way to a new way to interact with ecology in a way that is positive for humans and other species. John Todd’s work with creating aquatic ecosystems for cleaning black and greywater, growing food, cleaning toxic chemicals and heavy metals is amazing.

I wonder if this attitude that people who get their hands dirty are less intellegent holds us back as a culture from accepting new and useful technologies. We have this Star Trek vision where everyone wears polyester jumpsuits and no one ever gets dirty. Somehow that vision needs to change so that getting your hands dirty is celebrated. As economies shrink we all need to think about what we can do to provide for our own communities basic needs, and that means hands on work.