I have accepted the fact that I will never be self supporting making hats. I mean, I do not believe that is possible, even under the best of circumstances.

I do hope however, that I find something that brings about similar feelings and that I can use that somehow to find a means of self sufficiency. Whatever that is. Making Hawaiian Jacobite shirts or highlandwear for dogs. (Look, don't ask, ok, we're probably all better off if I keep my ideas for that to my self)

What there needs to be is a change. This is the internet era, where everything globally is connected by the net. Yet some things, like little cottage industries, are still playing by the old rules. You get a couple of craftsmen together in one physical location and they go at it together and maybe make a business together. Or one man goes at it alone. Either that, everything goes belly up, and one unhappy fella goes back to working for the man. Life becomes miserable.

There needs to be a better way of doing things, where those same men could work together, as a business, in different corners of the world, different time zones, all of them bringing something to the table so they can all be successful somehow. Sort of a 'virtual workshop.' Like, for example, X Kilts USA, where one employee was in LA, another in Portland, the third in New York, and the last in Dallas or something. One online showroom, one business, all of them working together as a unified force, the whole strength in numbers thing, all of them doing whatever it is they are good at. People would have better chances at doing what they love, doing what makes them happy, if there was a means for them to work together to reduce the chances of failure. Instead of going to work in a factory or a production plant, or some workshop in a physical location, why shouldn't it be possible for a multi-member business to be able to produce the same sort of output from home? People are still thinking and doing stuff the old way. People telecommute from home for certain jobs... Why can't jobs that produce a physical product be done from home as well? Why can't Bob, who lives in the middle of nowhere with no jobs and no economic future make product X which is he is good at, and then send it off to Gus, who lives in a completely different corner of the country to sell... Bob has the manufacturing ability, Gus could sell icemakers to polar bears... Alone, neither one of them has much of a chance, together, they could have a business. I am sure some folks are trying to do this... MORE people need to be trying to do this.

No. Instead we live our lives slaving away to make other people rich, trying to keep up with this lifestyle of consume consume consume. I think a lot of us, my self included, that we are susposed to be doing this thing called living.

I am completely and utterly amazed at some of the work I see on here. Kilts, sporrans, belts, all these things. An entire line of products is being hammered out by some of the most clever and industrious people I have ever had the pleasure of rubbing elbows with. I can't help but think all of our efforts individually being used together as something greater than the sum of its parts. Or something. I don't know.

This has been floating around in my mind for a while now, at least in different incarnations and various forms. I still don't know if this idea has fermented enough to be fit for words, but there it is.