Time and Tinkering at the Kitchen Table
We need to get back to fixing what is broken and save what we value before we lose our civilisation and what it is to be human.
Time and Tinkering at the Kitchen Table
I grew up at a time when people could fix things and nothing was thrown away without attempts first being made to fix them. I am reminded of my dad’s watch and clock mending kits, which were his dad’s and how my dad, a carpenter, set aside time each week after work, to tinker and repair. It would sometimes take weeks or months to find the problem with a watch or clock, which was often spring and winder related, but he would patiently persevere, usually at the kitchen table, to skillfully restore what was valued and loved. The same dedication was applied to everything; radios, broken toys, ornaments, furniture, lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, sewing machines, bicycles, etc etc most of which, had been passed on to us from aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. He also expertly, mended and re-soled and heeled all our shoes. We were all expected to make our shoes last for as long as possible and the polishing, and whitening, in the case of summer plimsoles, of our own shoes, was part of the routine every evening, before bed time.
My mum and dad were both skilled at mending and sewing clothes and I still remember the summer tops and dresses, swiftly ‘run up’ by my dad, on the treadle, Singer, sewing machine, the night before a week at the seaside. Me and my mum loved our matching outfits, with their pale pink and coffee, mushroom design and didn’t care that they had begun life as our bedroom curtains. They were new clothes, my dad had made them for us, and we were going to the sea-side, was all that mattered.
These skills and the care that I and my four brothers observed, and were often involved in helping with, have shaped who I am and the values that I hold dear. It is not about the things themselves but about caring and valuing that which has been passed on to us from family and friends or purchased with very hard earned cash.
It is time to stop all the clocks currently spiraling out of control. We need to return to seeing ourselves for what we are, biological beings with biological clocks. We have not changed but the current, digital driven environment, which we were told would bring tools to connect, inform, and enhance freedom of expression for all, has instead been used against us, to create digital gulags of anger, resentment, degeneracy, confusion, and despair. The ‘connections’ we were promised, have become networks for surveillance and control through censorship, public shaming and financial penalties. This is a sure sign that, there has been rather too much ‘tinkering’ by those who do not have our best interests at heart and who instead seek to enslave us. Things have gone terribly wrong and it will likely take much more than, a new ‘spring’ or ‘winder’, to fix this current ‘clock’. The powers that be, many of whom have been lured, captured and trapped by the funding, trade deals, honey traps and threats of authoritarian regimes, have been trying to ignore, deny and lie, about the obvious problems. Instead of trying to fix what is broken they have instead labeled us as the problems which must be ‘fixed’, or just discarded and replaced.
So, here we are, the ‘discarded’ and censored, the lovers of freedom, truth, love and laughter, refusing to be tik- toked into silence and compliance.
I often think of my dear Dad and wonder what he would have made of all the current madness. I can see him now, sitting at the kitchen table, with a cup of tea and a cigarette, shaking his head in disbelief, between bouts of laughter, which usually came with tears and colourful, expletives. Then, as so many of his generation did, he would have set about trying to understand why the ‘clock’ was broken, carefully tinkering to find the real problems and then use his skills, available resources and tools to try to ‘actually’ mend them, rather than just pretend to.
I feel reassured just thinking of him and know that we can follow his example. Let’s return to the kitchen table together, get out those tools which have served us well for so long and use our skills to recalibrate our ‘clocks’ to tick in time with what matters and what makes us human.
Bluebirdtui – October 15th 2022