Table of Contents

• Sanctuary

• American Maker (1960)

• Fireside Chat with Steph Piper

Sanctuary

On the Thanksgiving weekend, watching a football game, I saw a new Chevy commercial, which I really liked.  It had little to do with cars. There's a long version of it on YouTube -- a kind of short story set in the Midwest.  It's called Sanctuary. 

In Sanctuary, there’s a teenage boy who is feeling out of sorts at a holiday gathering. The family has recently lost the grandfather. The boy stands alone in the crowded room. Everyone asks him questions about his future, and they expect that he will be going to college. That makes him uncomfortable. His grandmother sees him and says to his father: “Can you go rescue that boy?”

The father takes him outside and they visit the grandfather’s workshop inside the big barn — tools on the wall, handmade items on a shelf. The boy remembers his grandfather showing him how to use tools.

The father and son go for a drive in the grandfather’s pickup. Sometimes it just easier to talk when you’re riding together. They talk about houses that the grandfather built in town. “He could make anything,” says the boy.

The boy wants to be like his grandfather -- he is good with his hands and wants to build things. He knows already has idea about his future but he’s not sure how other people think. The revelation in the story is that the boy's father recognizes that’s who he is, perhaps for the first time. He realizes is son more like his grandfather than he was. The grandfather's workshop is where this boy can figure out what he wants to do and learn to do it. It’s his sanctuary. It will be his place in the world.

This is a story for makers. We need others to see and recognize the potential that’s in us. You might know who you are but when someone else recognizes that in you, you really start to believe it.

If you’re a maker, remember that you have this power; you can offer this recognition to others. To paraphase the script: if a young person says, “I want to be a maker”, you might say: “You already are.” It’s a kind of blessing. You hope that they explore, discover and learn about all the things they might do, and enjoy, and learn, all the while connecting with others who share their passions. 

I know some will point out that the story is based on a gender stereotype, and that's true. Yet it makes me realize how much harder it might be for a young woman to be recognized for who she is and what she does; she just wants to be seen and valued as a maker but the world has all these other expectations. We all seek to have our own place, our sanctuary where we can be someone who makes things, and be able to pursue a life with meaning and purpose.

I shared the Chevy commercial within the company. Kevin Toyama, who is our book editor, responded:

American Maker (1960)

Chevrolet created a commercial in 1960 called American Maker. A few years, after starting Make magazine, I learned of the video. It starts off: “Of all things Americans are, we are makers.” Imagine that.

Here is a link to the video.

Fireside Chat with Steph Piper

We had our Fireside Chat this week with Steph Piper, author of the new book “Skill Seeker: Maker Edition.” We were joined by Billie Ruben and Luke Henderson, all of whom are from Australia. We talked about how to use maker skill trees to learn new things.

Here’s the Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/live/eKMkmkGsqMw

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