A well-loved farmer in a country community died suddenly one dark and rainy night. Everyone came to pay their respects and offer their prayers. They had to negotiate past the buckets and containers that were scattered around the living room to catch the leaking rainwater. The minister arrived and they all started praying.

Suddenly there was a noise at the front door and an old farmer arrived with his toolbox and a wheelbarrow full of groceries. When everyone asked him what he was doing, he politely replied,

"Well, I figure that God is pretty busy right now, listening to each and everyone's prayers, and deciding on some divine plan, so I'll just get on with the small job of bringing food into this home and start repairing the leaks in the roof. 
Tomorrow I'll fix the water pump, repair the tractor, mend the fence and make sure that this farm carries right on where my good friend left off."

The Handyman is a DOER.
The DOERS are the backbone of society.
The DOERS are the real force behind successful accomplishments.

My Handyman's tools are also symbols, veiled in allegory, to remind me how to live a successful life and really grow. Abe Lincoln once said,

"No matter how tall your grandfather was, you still have to do your own growing."


My workshop is my temple.
My tools are like chapters in a bible.
It is here where I can restore something old, but precious.
It is here where I can create something unique,
It is here where I can I can be at peace with myself.

Each tool teaches me about improving my character,
Each tool shows me a guideline to life,
Each tool tells me how to conduct myself with others.
Each tool has a purpose.

There is something very humble and yet very noble about a good Handyman, his workshop, his tools and his philosophy. Next to his quality of tools, the good Handyman places a high price on quality of workmanship, quality of materials and quality of safety.

If you enter his workshop, then take off your shoes friend, you are standing on holy ground.

His safety creed is :-

THE HANDYMAN'S SAFETY CREED

Upon my honour, I swear that I shall hold in sacred trust the rights and privileges conferred on me as a safe-working Handyman.

Knowing full well that the safety and lives of others may depend on my skill and judgment, I shall never knowingly subject others to risks which I would not be willing to assume for myself or for those dear to me.

In discharging this trust, I pledge myself never to undertake work, or approve work which I feel to be beyond the limits of my knowledge, nor shall I allow any other person to persuade me to approve any work as safe and operational against my better judgment. Nor shall I permit my judgment to be influenced by money or other personal gain.

I realise the grave responsibility which is mine as a practicing Handyman, to exercise my judgment on the safety of any work I undertake.

I, therefore pledge unyielding adherence to these precepts, for the advancement of technology and for the dignity of my Handyman's vocation.

Copyright © 2000 Brian Ewen White 
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