Reliability

Existential crisis:

Why have I pursued drafting & engineering all these years? I began to question myself recently and at first I feared that after all these years of yearning, striving, and finally achieving, that I had done it only out of stubbornness to follow my teenage vow of rebellion against my parents.

I was quite alarmed to think that I had perhaps wasted my time in pursuit of a vain goal. But as I continued to think on these things for days, weeks, and months, I rediscovered the origin of allure.

Control, rules, order, precision - these are the qualities that govern technical drawings. And this world of order is astoundingly beautiful to me. Everywhere in my life I have always sought order and logic, and viewed intuition  and feeling with a skeptical eye, not trusting in concepts born of emotion.

Even as a child I sought order and structure. Where there were rules, I was adamant that everyone follow them exactly- even to the point of being loyal only to the rules, not to my friends. If a friend broke a rule, I was the first to correct them or tattle. (I was not a likable child!)

The detail laid out in drafting, instructions that could be followed and relied upon, with no room for deception or hypocrisy or doubt - it was a comforting world that appealed greatly to me as I ran from the terror of superstition.

So here resides Logic and Order. This is why I love drafting and engineering. Rules must be followed. Consequences are immediately apparent. Emotion is superfluous, entirely unneeded.

I can count on a technical drawing to speak to me logically, to communicate instructions in detail. Rules live here that can be followed, and that also can be questioned and subsequently explained. There is reason behind every line, every letter. Extraneous information is eradicated. I can rely on engineering drawings (or corrections are absolutely welcomed when they are flawed).

In retrospect, I do not wonder that I find such great comfort in that.

Images sourced from Flickr, no known copyright restrictions: [First] "image from page 873 of "Appleton's dictionary of machines, mechanics, engine-work, and engineering" (1861)". [Second] "image from page 807 of "Modern mechanism, exhibiting the latest progress in machines, motors, and the transmission of power, being a supplementary volume to Appletons' cyclopaedia of applied mechanics" (1892)"