For The Love Of The Frame

Away From The World

If you haven't already bought the new Dave Matthews Band album, you should.  It is, in the words of my friend DB, "stellar".  Go to iTunes and buy it right now.  It was while jamming to their new album (for about the 1100th time) that I think I might have fallen in love with framing.  It's been a short courtship to be sure.  That said, I have always heard people say things like, "if you love what you do then it isn't work."  "You should do what makes you happy, and it won't feel like work."   I understand intellectually these platitudes and sentiments, but being somewhat of a pessimist (at least in this regard), I have secretly thought, "Yeah, right.  Like that really happens.  Work is work." 

I have always worked a lot.  Even when I was working at the Western Sizzlin, I worked a lot.  Maybe I just like to work.  Probably do, but who really knows.  My relationship to work has been a recurring thought of late.  More often than not in the course of my career a 40 hour work week would have seemed like a vacation.  I worked at work; I worked at home; I worked on vacation.  (Yes, I realize there is some sort of insanity in those statements.  And to be fair, I have had vacations where I didn't work or even check my email, like maybe 3, but that counts). 

Usually when I work, my style is to have many things going at once.  It has been a requirement of the job.  I had to know every single thing that was going on with every single deal in the pipeline especially the closer it got to closing.  Knowledgable, ready response across a myriad of deals was an expection of my clientele and my employers, unwritten as it might have been.   As such, that has been my M.O., and honestly, it suited me.  My brain seems to work better when there is some madness in the mix. A sense that "it' can't be done, but it must be done" seems to have been a constant.  Frenetic functioning is a gift I have, if one can call it that.  Regardless, it has served me well in some respects.  But there is a down side.  Working like that is a little crazy.  Something is off about it.  I see it now, but long before I saw it clearly, I felt it.  There is some motivation inside that need to work that is not exactly right, but I'm figuring it out.

Part of my venture into the framing business was an attempt to save myself, well, from myself.  Granted one can work for work's sake in any business or profession, but with this gig, I was have been motivated by a clear vision of how things could be different for me, different in a way that could help me be a better me.  As I told Owner at the outset, thinking about owning the frame shop looked like hope to me.  I particularly needed a big shot of hope when this all came together considering my last position in the terror, I mean title and escrow business.  So what in the world does all this have to do with Dave Matthews?  I'll tell you.

Last week I had an unexpected but welcome experience.  I was in the back of the shop making frames - doing some light sanding in preparation of joining a frame and totally jamming out to Dave Matthews; doo rag on, tunes cranked.  I was in my zone, and it was awesome.  I knew what I had to do, and I was getting it done.  Then out of the clear blue as the lyric "you can't get too much love" rang in my ears, I had a realization, a moment of clarity where time seemed to stop and invite me to enjoy this morsel.  I was having fun, and I felt like I was falling in love all at once.  And then it hit me, "AND I'm working!"  Whoa.  What a radical shift.  Boy did that seem weird.  Was I having real fun?  Yes, real fun.  Falling in love with it?  Like feel it in your belly love?  Yep, same thing.  It was love like a good hug, and it was fun like playing with Lincoln Logs or Legos, riding my bike fun, having cocktails with my friends kind of fun.  I can honestly say I don't think I've ever had that sensation while working - NEVER ever. 

Now, being overly-analytical-BriGuy, naturally, I tried to examine what I loved and what made it fun.  A little bit killed the moment, but not entirely.  Was I into chopping?  Joining the frame?  Working on a bunch of different stuff at once, moving from project-to-project?  Well, it was all of it.  The whole process was engaging me.  But then it became obvious: I was enjoying using my head and my hands to craft a thing of beauty.  Creating beauty is what I was loving, and that was the fun.   

I will probably always have a tendency to work too much.  But if you know me, you know I'm an intense guy, and maybe a bent toward working too much just part of who I am.  Temperance is necessary to be sure, but let me say this:  If I am going to work too much, I would sure as hell rather be making frames than dealing with easement and zoning issues for the ungrateful owner of a car parts store or a hotel I'll never step foot in! 

They call the framing business "The Happy Business", and I think I'm finding out why.  And with that, I'm off to bang out some frames, make some people happy (including myself) and have a little fun.