The PenTurners Workbook

I would like to apologize in advance for the lengthy post and shameless boast but now that I'm 70 I can do whatever I want. I've been retired for almost 7 years now and I just had an epiphany as to why I'm so content. Being happily married to a wonderful woman for 43 years as well as having my 2 children and 5 grandchildren living within 15 minutes is a big part of it but that's not the entire answer.

One of life's greatest challenges is mastering a skill. The problem is once that skill is mastered it no longer challenges you intellectually. As I spent the last 15 years of my life doing exclusively bariatric surgery, I did feel that by the time I retired I have mastered those operations. I'm not so arrogant as to think I was the best at doing those operations, but I feel I was as good as I could be. I still loved being in the operating room but some of the intellectual challenges was gone.

I was very fortunate towards the end of my career to develop passion for woodturning, particularly pens. As I mentioned to a friend when I started, it was really exciting to do something that I was not very good at and look forward to getting better. The process of improving, and hopefully perfecting a skill set, is a large part of what keeps us young, and intellectually stimulated.

Now onto the shameless boast part. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity early in my pen turning journey to meet Barry Gross, who is one of the preeminent pen turners, and teachers in the country. He has been my mentor as well as good friend for the last 10 years. He has also authored one of the definitive books on pen turning. He recently released the fourth edition of his book,The PenTurners Workbook, and I am incredibly proud, and honored, to have been included as one of pen turners whose work was featured in the book. The beautiful thing about woodturning is now that I've become relatively proficient in pen turning I now have the opportunity to focus other things aspects of woodturning that I currently suck at.

My epiphany was as long as you have something that you can continue to work on, to do better, to perfect to the best of your ability, you'll be content and excited about living.