The Divine Importance of Manual Labor | ...

Adam's youngest son, John, locked himself in the bathroom. No big deal — kid's fine, sang songs in there for forty-five minutes like a champ. The problem was the doorknob. Broken cam, broken spring, faceplate screws on the wrong side, and no way in. So Adam did what any father of six at the end of a long day does: he took an angle grinder to the thing and ground the entire doorknob into a pile of metal shards on the floor. Dave's suggestion — order the door open under holy obedience — came in a little too late.

Then Dave told on himself. Reseating a toilet, scraping the wax ring, already in a state of borderline rage. He bumped the tank against the tile and cracked it. In a fit of Herculean fury he hoisted the seat over his head, ready to Hulk-smash it into a million pieces — and heard, somewhere, his guardian angel. Jesus doesn't want you to do this. He set it down. Didn't destroy it. And got rewarded for it: American Standard honored a lifetime warranty he didn't know he had and shipped him a $1,600 toilet, free, to replace the $200 one he broke. Resisting the rage paid out at eight to one.

Then a quieter note. Baby Mary is still in the NICU. They got her off the breathing tube — she lasted about 24 hours before she had to be re-intubated. Good progress, long road still ahead. Oklahoma City's two hours off, the kids are out of school, and the Minihans are looking at hiring a nanny. But Adam wanted to brag on Lady Haylee. A stranger at the NICU left her a handwritten note and a crochet sweater with Mary's name on it — telling Haylee her faith had been an encouragement, that God is using her right there in that place. Haylee wasn't trying to be a witness. She was just being a mother in a hard place. That's exactly why it landed. Keep praying for Mary.

This week's pour: Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered Straight Bourbon from Nevada H&C Distilling out of Las Vegas. 59.29% ABV — hand-written on the bottle, so every batch runs a little different. Hot, full-flavored, plenty of grit. Jim's yummy scale gave it a 6.0, which broke the scale, because the scale apparently only went to four until tonight.

Then the real work. The spiritual significance of manual labor. Summer's coming — the season of labor — and the guys make the case that work isn't a curse of the fall. Adam was tending the garden before sin entered the world. His very name comes from the dirt — adamah — made from it, named for it, made to work it. St. Augustine: what's more wonderful than to watch God's creation respond to human hands? Aquinas gives his four reasons for manual labor — obtain your livelihood, remove idleness, curb concupiscence ("I'm almost too tired to sin"), and give alms from the surplus. And the deeper distinction: servile work, done out of necessity, and liberal work, done for the sake of rest. We don't work to work. We work so we can look at what we've made, see that it is good, and rest. Same thing a man does in the soil, he does for his wife — order the environment so the thing entrusted to him can thrive. Protect, provide, establish.

It's hard. It's supposed to be. What did you think hard was going to be? The man who can fix things is a threat to the throwaway culture — and the same will that fixes a thing is the will that prays the rosary on the morning you'd rather not. Raise your glass.

TOPICS COVERED

• Adam grinding his kid's bathroom doorknob into shards with an angle grinder after his son John got locked in
• Dave nearly Hulk-smashing a toilet seat in a fit of rage — and the guardian angel that stopped him
• How resisting the rage earned Dave a free $1,600 American Standard toilet under a lifetime warranty
• Baby Mary update — off the breathing tube for 24 hours, re-intubated, long road still ahead
• The Minihans looking at hiring a full-time nanny with the kids out of school
• The handwritten note and crochet sweater a stranger left Lady Haylee at the NICU
• How you carry suffering as a Christian can be a witness even when you're not trying to be one
• Bourbon of the week: Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered Straight Bourbon, Nevada H&C Distilling, 59.29% ABV
• Jim's yummy scale hitting 6.0 and breaking its own four-point ceiling
• Why we even have to talk about manual labor when it used to be everybody's daily life
• Attention as agency — guarding what you direct your mind toward in a world built to fracture it
• Acedia, apathy, and becoming a cog flung to and fro like Francesca in Dante's ninth circle
• "The world fears the man who can fix things" — Fr. Mori of Clear Creek Abbey
• Throwaway culture and why things are programmed now instead of built to be repaired
• Adam's M6 Marketing memo on "character without exception" — work and life are one line, not two
• Manual labor in Genesis — Adam tending the garden before the fall, not after
• Adamah — why the first man was made from dirt, named for dirt, and made to work it
• St. Augustine on God's creation responding to human hands
• Aquinas's four necessities of manual labor: livelihood, removing idleness, curbing concupiscence, giving alms
• "I'm almost too tired to sin" — why a hard day's work curbs temptation
• Servile work vs. liberal work — laboring out of necessity vs. laboring for the sake of rest
• Josef Pieper and the Catholic mind: we work so that we can rest
• Why hard is supposed to be hard, and how it trains the will
• Choosing to pray the rosary on the morning you've already decided you won't
• Self-sacrificial love — doing the dishes when you don't want to, because she shouldn't have to
• Prayer as both work and rest — peace as the tranquility of order in this life, rest in the next
• Why unstructured, leisurely time is where the desire to write, paint, and create actually surfaces
• Passing the habit of manual labor — and the courage to fix things — down to your kids
• "It's not about the nail" — the philosophy of life behind refusing to just throw things away

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE

Books & Writings:

• In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity by Josef Pieper
• Leisure, the Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper (Pieper's broader work on work and rest)
• Adam's Substack, The Grounded Builder — recent article on five overlooked books worth reading
• The Book of Genesis (the creation and naming of Adam; the call to tend the garden)
• Dante's Inferno (the ninth circle; Francesca in the second circle, flung to and fro)
• Shakespeare's As You Like It (staged locally by the Sheard family and other homeschool families)

Saints & Historical Figures:

• St. Thomas Aquinas (the four necessities of manual labor; servile vs. liberal work)
• St. Augustine ("what is more wonderful than to observe the workings of nature...")
• Adam (the first man — adamah, made from and for the dirt)

People:

• Adam Minihan (host; founder of M6 Marketing; writes The Grounded Builder on Substack)
• Dave Niles (host)
• Jim (in studio — keeper of the yummy scale; shipping Patreon gifts; prays with Hallow)
• Fr. Mori of Clear Creek Abbey ("the world fears the man who can fix things")
• Brandon Sheard (quoted the same line; the Sheard family staged the Shakespeare production)
• Dan (Dave's father-in-law — never trusted a man who works with music on in the background)
• Josef Pieper ("the peepster" — Adam's favorite German philosopher)
• Bob Ross (Dave's aspirational painting instructor)
• Lady Haylee Minihan
• Lady Pamela Niles

Programs & Institutions:

• Clear Creek Abbey
• Hallow (prayer app — Jim uses it; not a sponsor)
• M6 Marketing (Adam's company)

SPONSOR BLOCK

Sponsor: Select International Tours — selectinternationaltours.com

When Adam and Dave decided to lead their first pilgrimage, one name kept coming up: Select International Tours. They're the best. Having used them, the guys can vouch for it. Wherever in the world you want to go, Select has a tour ready. Whether you're looking to lead a pilgrimage or attend one, head to selectinternationaltours.com and see everything they offer. You won't regret it.

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