We can do amazing things when left alone, truly alone without our real social networks. It’s amazing how we rely on others to do our work and treat them like washing machines. It takes a pandemic to realize this when my hair grew long and Supercuts was closed indefinitely. I learned to cut my own hair and my son’s without a buzzer by necessity and my rightful claim as a maker. I learned that vines can suck the life out of a plum tree, and hacking at it relieves pent up claustrophobia stuck in my Shelter-In-Place watching them wither.
Recently, I’ve been playing Roblox remotely with my son. It’s a scary developmental 21st-century journey. Anyone with a child away from home can tell you that they get bored quick. Pull out the iPhone games like a pacifier to kill the time. Going through a maze with one hand while holding the phone with the other is a recipe to drink if I had hands free. With time on my hands and my hands dried green with the blood of shorn vines, I decided to make use of the Legos instead of looking at them as I believe they are, sacred toys.
Think of them like nails and screws you’ve forgotten in your dad’s coffee can turned gold. My maker’s mind buzzed on wine. Here is one more idea inspired indirectly by my son, transmuted to a decent iPhone holder that I could get on Amazon for $20, which would save cost on shipping, save the planet one bag at a time, and so on till we sing Kumbaya till the sheep come home. My time with my son, while he is away, is a lot less sobering now I am hands-free while gaming on a farm sim.
Having my hands raw from ripping out vines and planting my son’s summer school project makes me feel connected with our Earth without the distractions of my supposed busy life. I felt like a carpetbagger or a hobo stealing a pie from a window when I built my phone stand for free without costing the planet. It felt like paying it forward to the plastic bought. There is a blessing in every curse, even in the coronavirus and even in oil. Blueprints will cost ya cuz this single dad’s gotta feed his flock!
With one more day to go before I see my son, I reclaim my claim as a maker from the bastions of tech and even cottage industry. I improved my design with functionality in mind both portrait and landscape. I’ve made it so that the damn machine can recharge while I talk to my son. I’ve made it adjustable to increase the value of the object that will find no purchase. Here is Version 2.0. Check back next time and I’ll be on version 6.
To know something is to love something to a someone. To know an object takes a click of a mouse without a care in the world.
To know a thing takes at least a night. One night to disbelieve and the other to slave away. Being in my Sh.I.P. I feel the centuries melt away when men could carve iPhone holders with their bare teeth and claws. We are far from the Makers of Old cowering behind our glass shields hoping for the rain to end while madmen, madwomen and brave children howl to God and the Moon drenched in his wrath.