By Ken Matesz

“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere weed shaken in the wind.”    Johannes Brahms

There is much more to craftsmanship than just the skill with which one performs his craft.  Any profession demands the whole package of craftsmanship.

I will never forget when I attended a masonry heater workshop organized by a veteran, highly experienced mason.  About eight of us converged on a little house in Kentucky to construct a small, custom, one-of-a-kind masonry heater for an older woman.  Eight men cutting bricks, mixing mud, setting bricks, screwing holes, talking, laughing, making jokes, asking questions,and generally making a mess of this woman’s house is already quite enough violation of this woman’s tiny abode.  Though it was all for her benefit, it is nevertheless us strange men who were tracking dirt into her house for about a week.

People need to show great respect when intruding on and dirtying another person’s home.