What a relief to see some real political craftsmanship in action with the introduction of Tim Kaine. His speech was thoughtful and thoughtful, not an electoral focus that was deftly woven into it. Also the run-up to the announcement that he would be Hillary’s running mate: impeccable. No leaks, no drama. As it was thought, so it went. Everything ‘came from somewhere and went somewhere’. Compare that to the chaos and screaming of the Republicans in Cleveland: the political dilettantism aside from the substance was top-notch.
That is why I find craftsmanship such a fascinating theme because professionalism exists in endless fields, but strangely enough, relatively few ‘training for people’ exist. Nobody who is not very good at finding and saying and doing all kinds of things, but ask what it is based on and where it should lead, and ask a little further, and the legitimacy of a and other is thin to say the least.
How we should practice the ‘craftsman’: at best, we strike an informed blow at it.
Because I myself have the pleasure of being able to study at a ‘human education’, I would therefore like to share something about the lessons that are given here. I learn this, for example, in the lesson: ‘Remove faded petunia flowers’.
• Done, finished, solved, final – what a person experiences as an end, a result, is at most always a stopover. Dots are not only the last punctuation mark of sentences that are over, they also allow new sentences to begin. The petunia, which I brought into perfect condition yesterday, again demands my attention today. Learning point 1: without letting go there is no life and letting go starts anew every day.
• The petunia cannot effectively release its spent flowers on its own. The fluffy residue contaminates the still healthy parts and the ovule that remains in the stem eats energy that the blooming flowers can use. Without a gardener, therefore, no beautifully blooming petunia. Learning point 2: the real letting go is not accomplished by a person himself, but is accomplished in him. Letting go of all that we are supposedly trying to do on our own strength limits our ability to thrive.
• A beautiful, full blooming petunia touches many passers-by. The petunia may not bloom deliberately to ‘touch’, but because it blooms, it touches. Lesson 3: To the extent that a person makes himself available to the gardener’s plucking hand and flowers correspondingly, he grows in significance.
And so I follow similar lessons here all day long with similar learning points. No craftsmanship that can be taught in such a way – for everyone – accessible as the ‘professional person’. Hoort continues.
