I deleted a post on another thread after rereading and after rethinking it seems more fitting here, anyway. And maybe ties the off-topic to the topic.

DWFII and I have both spent many years working in physically demanding trades, long enough for us to become dinosaurs and our trades almost unrecognizable to those we learned from. We have learned the value of work done by known hands, and the dangers of assuming cookie-cutter techniques are equal to the ones we learned, and hands that earned a living wage and respect. Our perspective should count for something.

We here are the drivers of the evolution of the kilt, and the survival of the traditions. We must help find the ways those things can work together. There is a way. I may not know it any more than the next guy, but my faith is strong that it does exist, and can be found. If nobody stands up to say quality counts, DWFII is right, the next generation will not know it, and will not know to look for it. Computers and assembly lines can't do what we do. They can approximate some of it, but with different energetic results. My father and I split our working years among several trades. We were both good at all of them. I was said to be the best people had ever seen at certain aspects, but I would never claim the mastery DWFII has attained. I did, however, gain a profound respect for WORK. It's a great spiritual practice. It's good for the soul, and when approached that way imbues it's results with qualities not possible in robotic processes or sweatshops. To lose this would profoundly damage these traditions.

Not to be totally Luddite here, I find it astonishing that we have come to a point where a patient at risk in transplant situations can have a collection of his/her own cells made into a DNA soup to be used as ink in computer printers to PRINT an organ to replace a damaged one, and with one's own DNA, no rejection problems. These approaches have value as well.

Evolution will continue whether we participate or not. There has to be a way to continue to include master craftsmen.