What do trains help you to care about?
For what it’s worth, here’s my answer: trains help me remember times and events that are meaningful. Memories that I can only revisit in my mind.
Trains help me express a level of creativity in ways that other mediums don’t. Trains provide a theme and purpose for exploring what craftsmanship is to me and a way to view the work through an artistic lens rather than a technique or product driven one.
Trains help me understand that I have something to say and a distinct voice with which to say it.
You don’t have to understand, like or agree with any of this and I’m not on a crusade to convert anyone to my way of thinking. I’m gratified when others add to the conversation but I write about these things because I enjoy writing about them and, if I have anything to offer at all, it’s simply a different point of view.
So, ponder this week: what do trains help you care about? Maybe blog about it on your own or you’re welcome to comment here. Thanks for reading.
Regards,
Mike
Great question, as always.
In your previous blog post I wondered “why trains” in terms of media. With that question still rolling around in my head I enjoyed reading this week’s post that answered that curiousity before I shared it. Thanks.
/chris
Mike, I certainly emulate your musings noted here but if I can add one more thing that trains do for me it is that they allow me to escape from the real world which can and has and is, for me right now, in a state of great distress. If it wasn’t for trains and the close friendships it has fostered life would be almost too much to bear. There are times when all that is needed is to be amongst them to just sit and drift and dream and sometimes the world actually stops spinning and I can be at any point in my life that feels right.
Thanks as always for insightful words and a chance to think.
David Higgott
Hobbies are what we do, when we are being ourselves. To which I would add that I can think of no other hobby which offers such an opportunity to widen one’s horizons, skills and knowledge.
TMC 99 is where it’s at…
Simon
Trains help me care about science, technology and society. Among numerous things, there are topics such as the effect of technology on society, understanding a social context, physical manifestations of policies and human ingenuity, the industriousness of moving large things, the connection of individual humans to larger systems, and cooperation as a method of play.
Thanks for the comments everyone. It goes to show the breadth of the craft.
Mike