I was reflecting today on the way in which different practical tasks require quite different mental habits and capacities. I am embarked on the task of renovating a set of park benches in the grounds of our local church. Woodwork has appealed to me for many years …. in fact, since I was in grammar school. So although this is an act of service to the community it is also a rather satisfying challenge. It came to me this afternoon, however, that although painting and woodwork are practical tasks with an aesthetic aspect they engage quite different parts of the brain. Everything is done by eye when I am painting. When working with wood everything is measured carefully. When I am painting I am in charge of the design. As a carpenter I am bound very strictly by the characteristics of the objects on which I am working. The wooden components for which I am responsible have to fit the design of the concrete supports I have inherited. As an artist I lead: as a carpenter I follow.
I like to think that this might be doing me good, in some respect, but at the moment I am pondering over just how that might be. Is this another case of the dominance of different hemispheres of the brain, over which I have reflected on several occasions in the past?