I was an Objectivist and didn't know it.

[Albionan]

Hello everyone,

Brand new here. I don't remember who gave it to me but I read Atlas Shrugged about 10 years ago. I enjoyed the book but didn't really understand a lot of it. I could identify with a lot of ideas in the book but I was sort of like Hank Reardon in that I had sort of a mixed philosophy. I was always one to think about the big questions in life. As a young boy in church I was always asking inconvenient questions like who was cain's wife and were there dinosaurs on the ark. I have always considered myself a conservative and have always thought differently than most other people. I was shocked in 2005 when watching coverage of hurricane Katrina that rather than feel sympathy for the people angrily demanding help I felt revulsion instead. I re-read Atlas Shrugged shortly after that and this time it caused me to examine every one of my premises. I tried my best to find flaws and contradictions in the ideas in that book because they clashed with so much that I had been taught in church and in school and one by one I was forced to accept them all. I could find no contradictions.

I have been on a mission for the last 5 years to seek out and destroy every contradiction in my own beliefs. I work alone in a woodworking shop so I have lots of time to think. I have read almost all of Ayn Rand's books multiple times and more and more I am truly amazed at the level of complete integration in her ideas and the lack of contradictions.

I have always been an Objectivist on a subconscious, "sense of life" level. Ms. Rand gave me "the words I needed" to become one consciously. I found many errors in my thinking that I had accepted without question, mostly because I thought that that was what I was supposed to think. I can identify with the character of Hank Reardon as he slowly realizes his own errors in thinking and finally sees the light. That happened to me and I had such a feeling of peace come over me, like a huge weight had been lifted off. Suddenly a lot of things that had puzzled me all my life about some of my fellow human beings finally made complete sense. I understood why I felt revulsion at some of the Katrina refugees. I still have a lot to learn but at least I know that what I know is right. I can say with certainty that I know the meaning and the purpose of life. I will forever be in debt to Ayn Rand.

[Guyau]

Welcome to OL, Robert Kidd.

Anthem (1937)

I stand here on the summit of the mountain. I lift my head and I spread my arms. This, my body and spirit, is the end of the quest. I wished to know the meaning of things. I am the meaning.

Fountainhead (1943)

"Look, Gail." Roark got up, reached out, tore a thick branch off a tree, . . . [and] bent the branch slowly into an arc. "Now I can make what I want of it: a bow, a spear, a cane, a railing. That's the meaning of life."


"Your strength?"

"Your work. . . . The material the earth offers you and what you make of it"

I like woodwork and woodworking. Never did it commercially. When I was a youth, I designed and built futuristic model cars, mostly from wood, for a GM contest.* My folks had built our house, so I had some training. My partner and I bought our own home a few years ago, where a slow, but pleasing restoration of the mahogany is underway.

What kind of woodworking do you do?

[Albionan]

I am a professional spoon carver, believe it or not. I used to do a lot of custom finish carpentry and stair and cabinet building but all of my work dried up with the housing bubble. We live in a very rural area with a ski area to our west and a resort town. My work was mostly in vacation homes and spec homes. building came to a pretty abrupt halt in 2009 and I turned what had been a small profit center into my full time job. We make hand carved functional kitchen utensils from beautiful hardwoods. We sell online and in galleries.