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Labor and mind.

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Nice post from Kate at Peace and Pekoe about manual labor and the mind.

It seems reasonable enough that there must be some real differences in cognitive development between the person who interacts with physical puzzles and products every day vs. those who only think and read and write and interact primarily with computers, pencil and paper. I see traits in my carpenter husband that seem organically connected with his trade, as though being a craftsman is a character trait like being introverted or optimistic, and I've learned to recognize some of these traits in other tradespeople as well – not that I find it easy to describe what exactly those traits are, without being guilty of over-generalization or romanticism. It's more a mode of being, thinking and doing, I think. In any case, I appreciate it and often envy it and I wonder sometimes whether anyone else has noticed this – this imprint one's work seems to make on one's soul – or whether I am alone in this.


Oh yeah, I've noticed it — I'm married to a process engineer, a very hands-on, problem-solving sort of person who loves his job and comes home dirty.  I like to think I share a little bit of that mode of thinking, even though I always had a much more theoretical bent.

Don't forget that there's another class of work that I'm sure changes your cognition — the kind where you work intimately with other people, and have to learn to navigate other people's flaws and talents, their immaturities and their gifts.  The kind where you teach others, and others teach you, if you're open to it.  Mothering is just such a life, but interpersonal interactions are central to lots of paid work too.  One can be good at it or bad at it.  And if you are getting better at it, it must be because your mind is making new connections, because you are learning.

I find that living and working at home alongside my learning and growing children has been both a laboratory of "physical puzzles and projects" — and a laboratory for understanding human relationships in a way I never did before.  You might say I am learning how to manipulate people (smile) or you might say I am learning to motivate them.  In any case it is a laboratory of love, too.

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