When I was young and we would drive around in my Dad's truck, he would point at things and say, "I built that." or "I poured the foundation for that house." He's a brick layer and has been working in my hometown for his whole life. He took over the masonry business from my grandfather. It felt important to me that wherever we drove, there were monuments to my Dad's building prowess.
In the summer of 1999, I was living in abject poverty on starvation rations. Shelby used to work at a farm in Hartland, Michigan, which is about 45 minutes from Lansing. Her boss was looking for people to help bale hay. She was paying $10/hr. That was more money than I could conceive of! So I agreed. When I got out there, my job turned out to be this: Standing up in the 100 degree heat of the hay mow (the attic of the barn where the hay is stored) and alternately pulling the 50-60 pound hay bales off of the conveyer belt and throwing it up to the stackers or stacking it in neat, puzzle piece rows and piles. I don't think I've ever sweated that much in my life. By the end, I wasn't even sweating sweat anymore. I was sweating out straight water. We would take frequent breaks to sit down on the lawn and drink water and smoke cigarettes. And after we got done each day, we had a little BBQ.
I baled hay for three days. At the end of the last day, I stood in the mow and look at all the bales stacked neatly in rows and piles that were five times taller than I am and I thought, "I had something to do with each of these bales of hay being placed in here. Because of me, horses will eat for an entire winter. Because I helped, we finished before it rained." I got a charge out of that, too.
Anyhow: I don't think that there are too many jobs anymore where you MAKE something. There are not too many things you do where you come out with a physical THING as a result. There's nothing to really look at or be proud of. Our accomplishments are more intellectual. Our goals are reached more emotionally. You get the job, then the better job, you close the deal, etc, but... There's nowhere you can drive in a truck and show to your kids and say, "I made this." You have left no mark on the world.
I think that people need to leave a mark on the world. I think people are hungry for a physical representation of accomplishment. And I don't think too many of them find it. As always, there are exceptions. People who actually DO build things or people who find hobbies that fulfill this need. Gardens and tinkering with cars or model airplanes or ANYTHING. But they are the minority.
In the grand tradition of my father and family, I need to feel like I made a physical difference. Maybe it's all about upbringing. Maybe that's why I need to say, "I made this." But whatever it is, I got an awful lot of enjoyment out of stacking those small cylinders of chewing tobacco.