Hommerin’ the Leather by J. J. Wainwright

It isn’t a book but an article submitted to The Parents’ Review, and found in Volume 2, 1891/2. I’ve been helping Ambleside Online out in one of only two ways that I know of; I’ve been typing up entries of the Parents’ Review so that they can be accessible online for others to read.

Today I ‘claimed’ this article to type up, “Hommerin’ the Leather” by J. J. Wainwright, and was so taken by it that I wanted to share. I won’t put the article here since it will be online soon –here is the article–but wanted to give some bits of it and my thoughts.

Now, I’ve never been to Greece, or Hawaii, but I often hear in a joking manner that there are ‘business hours’ in those places that we don’t find here in the US. They go something like “we get up around 9 and might open our store at 10 but if we are running late, it could be 11, etc.” {Don’t quote me on that!} It’s a laid back attitude, I gather. Nothing wrong with that.

The article I typed up though has a very good point though about this ‘laid back attitude'. Wainwright relays a story {“o’er true tale”} of him as a boy, and the gentleman who was hired to make the family’s bluchers, or boots. This leather worker was good at his work, as far as I can gather. But he was so…very…slow. The boots were never done when they were promised to be done. Inquiries into the status of the boots often resulted in a run-around on the leather worker’s part. He was always “thinkin’ on hommerin’ the leather.”

He relates another account of Jack and Ollendorf, two fellow workers who are vying for the same position. One stipulation of obtaining the position is that Jack needs to learn the Spanish language. Jack is like the leather worker and doesn’t ever move past the thinking stage, whereas Ollendorf, from Germany, has already mastered quite a few languages, and other goals, in less than year. Ollendorf has learned Spanish. Jack has not. In a few years, Ollendorf will be very successful and farther advanced than Jack, and Jack will be right where he was before.

The ‘moral’ of the story: do more than just think –act! Put forth genuine effort. Get an idea of what it is that you want to do or where you are wanting to go and work towards that goal. I am so guilty of always “thinkin’ of hommerin’ the leather” that I rarely even get the leather out, or the hammer. My first thought, honestly, was that I want my son to read the article {it is definitely kid friendly} and then I thought “Yikes! I’m guilty of being like Jack; always ‘thinking of…’ and not doing.”

So now I’m going to, not just think about, get my list of goals out and start working towards making them reality.