why do we make stuff?

[ForresterModern]

My obsessions with making things usually started with a mild interest in something, then the discovery that to do it right required more knowledge, commitment, and often equipment or tools. From sewing as a teenager, to botanical guru during college (my dorm room looked like a veritable jungle---all legal), to competition dart throwing (and the never ending search for the perfect combination of components for the perfect throwing dart), to rebuilding a jeep suspension "ground up" so to speak for optimum four-wheeling during med school, to building golf clubs for myself and friends (I am so far from a standard fit it is ridiculous---guys at shops just look at me and their measurements and scratch their heads), to taking up flyfishing and then learning that the most important part was having the right fly for the right moment in time (matching the hatch) which meant over $1000 worth of flytying equipment and supplies and lessons and hours over the vise with fur and feathers and bobbins and nippers, to my last passion of cycling, both road and off road, which has led me to build two competition grade road bikes from bare carbon frames as well as rebuild and re-outfit one cross bike and one mountain bike, not to mention the dozen or so I took in, worked on, used, and sold off to make room for the new ones. But for me the making and the learning always started with a need for something better in order to do what I loved at a higher level that I wanted to perform, never really for the making of something by itself to be proud of. None of my old me-made clothes fit anymore, wife takes care of the plants and the landscaping, still have three sets of my old faithful darts but no longer throw, jeeps are long gone replaced with reliable 4wd SUV so complex I barely know how to run the stereo, I still have my fly tying box and over a thousand hand tied flies that occasionally find their way onto some tippet for a little air time, still make my own golf clubs every 6-8 years or so when I feel the urge but no longer build for friends or sale, and I maintain the stable of bikes for my wife and I that are currently clogging our garage and basement storage area. My biggest problem now is not the drive to build more (even though I still upgrade my bikes with new lighter and shiny bits, and have my latest set of golf clubs ready to cut and grip for summer) but the time and opportunity to make use of what I already have built. As with the other passions that have gone by the wayside, I bike about half or less as much as I used to 8 years ago, play golf about a quarter as often as I did 10 years ago, and fish maybe a couple times a year.

Guess I need to redirect some of that "build or make" energy into "make time to get out to do" the activities that I love more often. I hate getting old, and letting other things take priority over the fun parts of life.

j