An apprentice again

Lately, I have been spending time working in my family's other business. We own a food service that has been operated by my wife and son who are real foodies.

I have had a lot of involvement in this but up until a few years ago, I have not been what we now like to call on the ground. The evaporation of a good part of my woodworking business along with the need to hunker down in general resulted in my splitting my time between working in the shop and the cafe.

At first, I was just filling in, doing pretty rote stuff like chopping and slicing and dicing. I was not very interested in it but, as time went on, I began to see a lot of similarities between what I was doing in the shop and what was needed in this strange new endeavor.

I started to feel like an apprentice again because I have never been much of a cook. My experience up to that point could be pretty well summed up by "make fire, throw on meat.” But as things progressed, I began to realize that this was a whole lot like woodworking or anything else that required experience. I have always defined experience as a combination of skill and knowledge. The time it takes one to acquire that skill and knowledge will vary but both are necessary.

When I started out, I called myself a woodworker. After a while, I realized that I had a lot to learn before I would be able to live up to that claim.

D.D.