Toward Ecosophy

My dad has worked a whole host of blue-collar jobs: construction, commercial fishing, metalwork, and yeah, my parents wanted all of us to go to college and get nice white-collar jobs. But not all blue-collar jobs are equally dangerous, or equally hard on the body. Operating an excavator is a short career: the constant vibration causes nerve damage. Operating a small crane is something you can do well into retirement age. I don't romanticize this-- I try to give them as much info as possible. Learning the basics of any of the trades is handy even in a white-collar profession. My grandfather, a chemical engineer, could also wire a house, lay out plumbing, and build a brick wall. It served him very well. I want my kids to have that baseline of real-world competence and experience, whether they make a career of it or go into something else.