Without getting all Pirsig about it, it's a treatise on the value of the manual trades.
Finally, someone is able to explain, in plain and simple language,why I like "tall men with useful skills." (It's right there in my profile, folks.) I always had a hard time explaining to my smarty-pants friends just what made carpenters, electricians, mechanics, redheaded pressmen, attractive to me. (Besides the oh-so-sexy plumber's butt, natch). Maybe I like them because I come from them (my brothers are auto mechanics), and it may explain why I get a little prickly when asked about my family, and people tend to fall silent or get that "oh, that's nice," false smile when I tell them my background.
Let's put it this way, when you're driving down the highway, and your car breaks down, who are you going to call? Your friend the college professor? Your toilet breaks, that person you spend hours nattering away about the meaning of life with probably isn't able to stop the backflow of shit into your bathroom. If you need bookshelves, waving your credentials at the empty space in the corner of your living room isn't going to get them built.
Okay, so I tend to be a little bit of a reverse snob about these things when it comes to men, sorry. If I like a guy and his first response to something breaking is "Let me see who I can call," rather than, "Let me see what I can do," I maybe like him just a teeny, tiny, little bit less. I look at a guy's hands to see if there's any imprint of some skill on them, maybe a scar or two, some calluses, or a broken or deformed nail from some mishap with a tool. Plump, soft, pink hands that look like they've never done anything more than turn the pages of a book or dial a phone, well, they won't get much past first base with me. If you think I'm shallow, well, too bad for you.
For me, it's not about what a guy can earn. It's about what a guy can do.
Matthew B. Crawford pretty much nails it in one here. He's the complete package: Philosopher (not the crude uneducated kind that overfed, overeducated intellectuals claim to esteem, but has a Ph.D. in philosophy) and motorcycle mechanic, with his own repair shop in Virginia.
Oh, and he's really, really hot.
