Ah! In this, if not in all, you resemble our Jesus Christ Our Lord. Some say he was a carpenter like his daddy; but I maintain, on the basis of his parables, that he was a farm boy; or at least a town boy who used to read farm magazines.
I would like to figure out a way to get out of most of the work. I tried having 2 boys, but that doesn't help, or only intermittently. I am hoping that if there are intelligent space aliens, they have figured out ways to do horticulture without overly involving major muscle groups. They could give me some tips.
No, don't say "small internal combustion engines." I won't have that!
"Not at all" would be better put, except that I have a hairy face, as He is believed to have had, and as His only known photograph appears to indicate. I'll take whatever I can get.
Some say he was a carpenter like his daddy; but I maintain, on the basis of his parables, that he was a farm boy; or at least a town boy who used to read farm magazines.
I would very much like to see what farm magazines were available in first-century Judea!
I go with the "Jesus the carpenter" tradition, largely because it is tradition, which should in no way be disregarded (cf Chesterton's "Tradition is the democracy of the dead," meaning that everyone gets to vote--not just those who arrogantly happen to be alive at the moment), and also because it was usually the case that sons, particularly first sons (as the world would have understood Him to be) to follow the perceived dad‘s trade; farm boy or not, I think He would have had to have been particularly unobservant, living in rural Galilee, not to have been aware of farmers and their lives and professions, and employed such imagery in parables as would immediately have been understood by a large percentage of His audience, whether they were themselves farmers or not.
I am hoping that if there are intelligent space aliens, they have figured out ways to do horticulture without overly involving major muscle groups. They could give me some tips.
Assuming the little grey buggers are out there, there are a number of human enterprises I would like them to keep their spidery little hands off of, which super-advanced technology could not help but ruin, gardening among them (also, music, carpentry, camping, art, story-telling--stuff like that, which I would call the Incarnational Arts). Aliens--keep away! You just don't get it, and you never will! (Of course, they might have some ergonomic suggestions with regard to use of muscles that could come in handy, assuming--and it‘s a big assumption--that their muscle groups aren‘t wholly unlike ours.)
I tried having 2 boys, but that doesn't help, or only intermittently . . . No, don't say "small internal combustion engines." I won't have that!
Yeah, but isn't that the very definition of "two boys"--”small internal combustion engines“? My brother and I would certainly have qualified! We could be induced to do yard and limited horticultural work with the right sorts of incentives (restored allowance privileges, absence of tanned bottoms) which are probably not de rigueur nowadays, but which (I can guarantee) worked wonders in the restoration of the enthusiasm for labor! Surely aliens capable of crossing vast interstellar distances would have developed something like the Spankatron 3000 or its analog by now! Or an exoskeletal electromasseur which could apply restorative muscular therapy as you worked to prevent knotting and cramping of muscles!
You know, I like the latter idea well enough so that if I actually knew anything, I might look into developing it--except that I am virtually certain that the technology would likely be abused in some imaginative way.