For you

 Just wound my mantle clock and somehow find that a satisfying experience. It's something I do once a week. I check the time against my digital clock on the computer. It's an amazing thing that that clock stays as close as it does. That clock, as near as I can tell, is close to one hundred years old. A mechanical device relying upon the controled release of spring tension to keep that pendulum in motion. The pendulum itself has two tubes filled with mercury to provide the correct amount of weight. Quite the feat of engineering I'd say, already hundreds of years old by the time it was manufactured. Google says the first pendulum clock was made in 1656. 

 When winding that clock, I always think about the old days, what it must have been like. If you allowed your clock to wind down, you would lose the correct time. Before mechanical clocks a sundial, or perhaps a water clock were the only methods to keep track of hours and minutes. But I suppose back then just knowing the day was enough in most instances. Things surely moved at a much slower pace. Beyond that the time was told by the seasons. The old people were very much aware of the night sky, the position of the stars, and the movements of planets. They could determine the season from such, quite easily. I'm certain it took a little longer, but they did learn to read that clock. That, and they read all the other signs, what flowers or plants were growing, or in bloom, how the animals behaved, and obviously the temperature. 

 I think people felt more a sense of accomplishment back in those days. What I mean is, keeping everything in order and on time. You did have certain necessary chores to accomplish each day in order to survive. You couldn't simply take a day off and do nothing at all. You still had animals to feed, wood to chop, or any number of daily chores that simply couldn't be dismissed. But in doing so you had to feel a bit of satisfaction, a bit of accomplishment. In today's world many of us simply, go to work, do whatever our assigned task is and return home. Our reward for doing so is a paycheck, or more likely today, a direct deposit. A sense of accomplishment? Well not so much I'm thinking. What was accomplished is generally enjoyed by the one that hired you, a stark difference from doing it for yourself. I don't know but getting that check and saying, I just balanced the hell out of those books just doesn't sound very rewarding to me, nothing like bringing in a crop for instance. That's what I'm thinking about. That was independence! It seems to me we have gravitated toward dependence. 

 "Chose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life" It's an old saying attributed to Confucius among others. I'm thinking the job we all love to do the most will benefit ourselves. It may involve helping others to achieve that benefit but ultimately, we are doing it for ourselves. It is what makes us feel accomplished. I made that! Very few statements give us the same sense of pride, of accomplishment. Remember when then President Obama said, "you didn't build that" and the reaction to that statement? Yes, many of us were offended, upset by that and justly so. What was being said? Somebody else gets the credit! And it is that feeling that so many people feel every day in this modern world. Today success is generally measured in dollars and cents and popularity. It isn't in what you built, what you accomplished, it relies upon something else. Defining exactly what that is however is the challenge. Achieving independence is never easy, maintaining that independence is even a greater challenge. Today I wound my clock. I accomplished something, just for me. You may have seen this speech from an Admiral, it has been around a while. It is worth listening to. It's sorta what I'm talking about.