The first time that my Italian nephew Andrea met my American
nephew Harry, he asked him a question.
Harry, what do you build? Not
Harry, what do you drive, how many
facebook friends do you have, what do you do…but what is it that you build with
your own hands? Harry, who is a hard
working, wonderful young man was taken aback.
He had probably never been asked such a question. It seems that in the modern American version
of success, we have risen about working with our hands.
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| Andrea and Harry Enjoying a Well Deserved Rest |
That somehow those Powerpoints or spreadsheets are the real
work and that to get the soil under our fingers or the sawdust on our brow is
beneath us. I think on some level, this
is a reflection of our greater economic challenges where we got so successful
and could borrow so easily that we deferred the making of and the building of
and the designing of to others. Affluenza
I think they call it!
In the old village of Veglio that at its peak had 250
inhabitants, nearly everything that was needed was made by hand. The milk that was turned into cheese, the
grapes that were turned into wine...the vegetables and animals to last through the winter. The grain and chestnuts milled and then
crafted into dark, nutritious bread that was baked twice a week.
The rocks that were gathered from the fields and the mountainsides were
crafted into the walls and the roof. The
larch and pine and chestnut trees became the floors, the beams and the
furniture. Everything had a purpose and
the wise use of your hands could turn the land and resources into the essential
things that are required for a good life.
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| Mama Tuna and Grandpa and Grandma McCoy |
I firmly believe that this somehow connects us to the earth
and as importantly to each other. Working together to provide the most important elements of our life. There
is a huge movement across the US to put on the table what is grown on small,
local farms. Thousands of young people
who only in the previous generation would have been mocked for doing so, are
opting out of the corporate track to build productive, healthy family farms.
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| Grandma Driving Her SUV |
A similar appreciation is growing of building with more
sustainable, readily available materials.
Less plastic, less concrete, less material that must be trucked from
halfway around the world. We collectively seem to be gravitating, if ever so slowly, towards a place of balance between convenience and significance.
My grandparents had a huge influence on my life. They not only loved me but they taught me how
to work and how to appreciate the simple joys that come from making a house and
land a home. I have fond memories of my
then 75 year old grandmother plowing her garden or replacing the floor of her
porch. We saw the same thing in the
rural parts of Italy as well. People
well into their 80’s with shovels and rakes, working their garden or cleaning
up a patch of land. With smiles and a sense of contentment on their faces.
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| Andrea and Sal Using a 700 Year Old Technique |
My hope that this will be not only part of our life as we
continue to restore our Italian home, but also will be a legacy that we can
leave for our children and grandchildren. That they can learn to tend the
gardens, grapes and the orchards. To cut the brush from the creek so they too
can see the old church from the terrace on a late Summer day. And also learn the ancient crafts and share
the same experience as their ancestors three hundred years earlier.
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| Dinner in Veglio |
To get a sense of the satisfaction that comes from turning
your labor into a meal for your family or a glass of wine that can be shared
with friends around a fire. To
experience this on the mountain for a few weeks during the year and then bring
that back to their own homes wherever that may be.
