craftsmanship
To be a craftsman is to be able to separate the work one is doing at the time from everything else, to know exactly and to hold before one's eyes one thing only: what should be done and how; to disregard whatever has no connection with this; not to care about success, not to think of failure; not to fear anything and not to leave anything to chance; to be always completely absorbed in the particular work one is doing at the moment. If you work like this, everything works with you and everything helps you, every tool is your friend, every change a sign-post and the material obedient under your hands; everything runs without an error or a hitch, or rather every error is set right, every hitch made up for. Then your work must progress, the further - the better; it gains vigour and beauty along the way, because it grows out of itself like a plant from a seed which was selected, properly sown, tended.
From the story 'The Climbers' by Ivo Andrić.
david , 20-03-’07 14:26