Carpenter and blacksmith Scotts Wadsworth, who runs the YouTube channel “Essential Craftsman,” made the case for confronting personal pain from the perspective of a blue-collar worker.
His lecture, “The Problem of Pain Evasion: A Case for Grit,” was sponsored by the President’s Office and explored the value of grit, perseverance, and spiritual humility in the face of suffering through four key themes: the need for suffering, the fulfillment of suffering in creativity, the value of grit, and God’s role in the blacksmith’s shop.
Wadsworth’s involvement in the carpentry industry began after his decision to leave Oregon State University to pursue the trades. He said he discovered that grit is the reason for his 50-year-long career.
“When I had that stroke of insight that I didn’t need an education, I had no idea how much grit I was going to need to pursue a career in construction,” Wadsworth said.
Wadsworth began his lecture by identifying the relationship between human nature and pain, explaining the difference between two types of pain.
“I think that as humans, and especially as humans with families, we have a responsibility to avoid needless pain, but not evade pain,” he said. “Avoiding speaks to using wisdom, and evading speaks to trickery or cunning.”
Wadsworth explained that, in the trades, carpenters use grit to grind wood, which is a mixture of crushed sharp stone aggregate molded into a belt-like shape. He employed this carpentry tool in order to illustrate the power of character grit.
“When the grit comes into contact with the steel, the steel is pretty tough too. Grit’s tougher, but the particles of grit will crack,” Wadsworth said. “Some particles crack and leave pieces of grit. They fracture in a way that leaves sharp edges, so you can break me down, but I’m still going to grind you.”
Wadsworth ended with a reading and Q&A session on the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling, identifying the positive spiritual growth that results from demonstrating grit every day.
“We’re all going to experience that triumphant disaster. We see that growth, which recognizes the relative insignificance of anything that happens like these sorts of things, and the cosmic import of just saying, ‘Thy will be done,’” Wadsworth said.
Eric Coykendall, senior director of resource development for the K-12 Education Office, said he enjoyed the lecture.
“Wadsworth is a delightful man speaking from a life of great experiences and good stories. I think he’s trying to talk about something that’s actually hard to talk about,” Coykendall said. “As somebody who likes making things myself, it is a hard thing to talk about.”
Junior Samuel Falkowski said Wadsworth’s spiritual insights were helpful.
“It was a wonderful talk and very down to earth,” Falkowski said. “It was nice to see how he connected theology and just ordinary everyday philosophy with great metaphors that used his craft.”
Sophomore Tim Schuchardt, who said he has five years of carpentry experience, said he agreed with Wadsworth that blue-collar work can play a pivotal role in growing a person’s perseverance.
“There’s nothing that quite gives you access to philosophy like the trades. I thought Scott’s talk reconciled the beauty of philosophy and the beauty of the material world, and spoke to our responsibility as humans and as Christians to mediate between the two,” Schuchardt said.
