Looking Forward, Looking Back: Mark's Spring Journal Entry
It’s a bit late to be officially reflecting on the previous year, but I have always felt like Spring is when the year feels the freshest and newest, and seeing the first glimmers of that here in NC has inspired me to share some of my reflections on the past year and hopes for the new one.
On a personal level, last year was a turning point for me- it’s my last year in my 30’s, and my wife and I welcomed a new child into our family right before the holidays. I had the privilege of staying home with our newborn for much longer this time than our last child, giving me plenty of time to be at home and help with the domestic details of life, and take care of our 4-year-old. I will treasure that time, and the daily chances I had to reflect on the objects all around me and how they impact our lives. Being sleep deprived helped of course, the in-between of sleeping and waking unique to having a newborn in the house, and probably explains why I started reading about quantum mechanic thought experiments.
Quantum mechanics is a fascinating discipline, far far beyond my understanding in anything but the basic sense. What attracts me to it is how it tries to deal mathematically with the bizarre and seemingly paradoxical aspects of reality. This feels a lot like living in the present. Things that COULD happen, an infinity of possibilities, stretch out. In the quantum realm, particles can exist in multiple states simultaneously (superposition), and events can be connected across vast distances instantaneously (entanglement). The (somewhat) famous Schrödinger's cat thought experiment illustrates the concept of superposition, where a cat in a box can be alive and dead simultaneously until observed. This concept challenges a more classical understanding of reality, but it feels more truthful to the complex, interconnected world we live in.
The present moment feels like this to me- I know what we did last year, and I have a direction and intuition on what this year will bring. Unlike Schrödinger, I am not standing in front of a box that may or may not hold a possibly dead cat.
From a business perspective, last year for Haand was alot like everyone else’s- we had supply chain issues, things became more expensive, and nobody can seem to decide whether we are in a recession or a growth period in the economy. All that to say, planning is hard when you have no fucking idea what’s in the box…
But, at our shop, in a small city in central NC, we have the privilege of coming in every day and making things; the tools for “a life well lived”. Crafting handmade objects used around the table, preparing a meal, spending time with friends and family. These are all precious, fleeting moments, and we are honored to be a part of yours.
My hope for this year is to continue building on what Haand does best- make beautiful, creative things. We have to start making room… if you have visited our site any time recently, you may have found it a bit baffling to find what you are looking for. It might be out of stock. It might be in the “Bowls'' collection but not in the Ripple collection, etc. etc. So we are taking a gardeners approach, and pruning out the old growth, and making room for more of your favorites, and some new favorites that we have brewing, too. We’ll be sharing more about all of these in the coming weeks, but for now, I’d like to say thank you from myself and on behalf of the team here at Haand. It’s not always easy doing it the way we do, but it is always rewarding, and at the end of the day, having honest work to do is a good thing.
Cheers to you and yours,
Mark, Creative Director and Co-Founder