Tag: ideas

The Industrial Age

Jennifred Jones

Sometimes the industrial age is put down or thought of as antiquated and binding.

I believe every age throughout history was needed and had its place – no sense despising it, thinking it worthless…we’re on to bigger and better now!

BUT! Without the industrial age there’d be many, many things (luxuries) (bad word nowadays) we’d be without…All these things we never really needed. We can all do without almost everything, so why waste time thinking up something new and helpful and convenient to make life easier? (haha)

Here are some examples of those worthless unneeded things that we like and love resulting from the hard, hard, hard work of many, many men and boys, with their women alongside them produced during the industrial revolution:

  • Mining – grueling work to bring up iron ore, and coal, and minerals and water and oil
  • Steel mills – to convert the iron ore into steel beams to build bridges and buildings
  • Construction machinery – to build whatever we wanted to build
  • Trains – to transport all these goods from one place to another
  • Bridges – to span creeks, streams, treacherous waters so we could get to the other side
  • Skyscrapers – beautiful city buildings for business and home
  • Cars – to drive to town or grandmas or see the USA
  • Airplanes – we can go anywhere!
  • Textile mills – we don’t have to use the spinning wheel anymore or fabric loom
  • Factories – many kinds to produce many things we take for granted
  • Refineries – to produce oil and wax etc….something we cannot do in our backyard
  • Sewing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, garbage disposals, indoor plumbing, sinks, toilets, clawfoot tubs, lamps, fans, even the measly little light bulb!

Did we or did we not need the industrial revolution? Was it a good thing? Did it help us people nowadays?

All these things were thoughts and ideas of good men with the goal of making life less grueling so they could have more time with their families and rest and relax a bit…and many of us are resting and relaxing a bit – because of these men’s hard work.

I am thankful for the industrial revolution, the men who worked it and the results from their labors. My life is better because of it.

The Idea Chain

Jennifred Jones

How is a chain made? One link at a time.

How is anything else made? One idea at a time.

Ideas, thoughts, are like links in a chain. You can make the chain any length you want, you can make the links any size or thickness you like, and you can use any material you desire…either from what you already have or from something completely new.

Some chain links are made round, others rectangular, some oval or twisted.

Some links need to be very strong and are soldered closed. Others are merely closed so more links may be added.

The strength of your idea will determine the strength of your chain. Some chains are longer and some only need a dozen or so links.

Your idea will determine all of that and often you won’t know quite what you need until you begin to make it.

The important thing is to begin. See where your idea leads, what links can be added, when you need to take some away. Ideas like chains can change directions. A flexible chain can be twisted this way and that as your idea develops.

Chains are not rigid like a steel girder. They are meant to move in any direction needed.

Begin your idea. That is the first link and will get the process started. It may take a little longer sometimes to make subsequent links, to get them all shaped and attached, but keep going. So many good things have happened even with a hesitancy to start, or from a ‘blunder’ in the middle.

Get the idea out into the open – into the light to see which direction you want to go. Keep thinking, keep experimenting, talk about it with others. Link by link your chain idea will grow until you can use it to pull along more.

After that chain is finished…begin a new one!

Let your life become a fun game…building, making, helping, doing, thinking…repeat, repeat, repeat.

…my first link will be…

Be a Laborer #3

Jennifred Jones

Time! I don’t have time! I don’t have enough time! Hurry up! Time is of the essence! Stop wasting time! You can’t reclaim your time! This project is taking too much time!!!

I cannot do a good job, it will take too much time…

Ever heard/said these words?

I have. Over and over and over and over from others and in my own mind. What is the big RUSH? We need time. Time was made for us. It will not run out. We are not living against a timer set to go off if we don’t ‘finish in time’.

Good work takes time. It takes time to think, to plan, to do a task and to do it well.

Living against the time machine causes us to cut corners, do inferior work, use inferior tools, make inferior product, treat people less importantly, treat ourselves less valuably and on and on and on…

Practically every job listing states…’fast paced environment’! Why even say that? How about, ‘quality workmanship required here’?

To do your work well, to come up with good ideas, to think of ways for improvement, it is going to take time! We have got to stop feeling guilty for taking time and using it in a good way. We all work at different paces; however the emphasis needs to be on good, quality workmanship. It’s not wrong to do something, not like it and do it again…better! That is not wasting time!

Another saying…’a job worth doing is worth doing well’. and it takes time to do it well.

Don’t regret the time it takes for your good work. Concentrate on the work and your effort. Time will take care of itself!

  • What time restraints are you putting needlessly on  yourself?
  • What tasks do you need to slow down to thoroughly complete?
  • What condemning thoughts need to be dismissed in relation to your time?

I am asking myself these same questions.

Let’s labor ahead together to do good work, taking all the time needed and feel good about the product we are producing.