Scar Stories

“You know what happens to scar tissue. It’s the strongest part of your skin.” Michael Mantell

I recently choose to take on a project not for a class, not as a job but simply because I felt enough meaning in doing it. I love a challenge afterall, and this would be no exception so I dug right in. I was excited. I was expanding my resources, learning new things, coming up with creative elements and bursting with ideas. Sure I still had plenty of obstacles in my way before it could be completed—but even that thrilled me.

And then it happened… I shared ideas of this project with others and the response was less than favorable.

How could I possible do such a project on something that was “an embarrassing time for the industry” or “pure stupidity”?

I was sitting in front of my laptop reading their words of disbelief that I would want to relive those days—frustrated that they just didn’t understand.

Their replies were tied up in emotions of politics and public relations from decades gone by, if only they saw it the way I did.

I had to take my eyes off the screen—I couldn’t take it anymore. After scanning the room a few times I found my vision focused in on the delicate arc shaped scar on my right wrist… a battle wound from putting up fence at about age 14.

The more I stared at that scar the more I began to realize it was much like my situation. While that scar represents a painful experience in my life—it’s still a part of me today. It’s my past and I wouldn’t be the same without it. Just as I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the setbacks, mistakes and failures that I have endured up until this point.

We each have our own scars… our own history.  As does every company, organization, industry and even every country.

David C. McCullough said “History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”

Instead of covering up our scars we should accept the fact that they are there and not forget that behind every scar is a story of how it came to be, and a lesson to be learned.

 

A Brief History Of Barbed Wire

The Devil’s Rope;

Barbed Wire And The American Frontier

Most people have the opinion that barbed wire has never had more significance than its present day existence throughout the West. This mode of thinking neglects the history and the role that that barbed wire played in transforming American culture. Many technological breakthroughs have impacted the cultural history of our nation significantly. Barbed wire fencing was such a technology, and its invention and rise played a major role in the transformation of the frontier and West. Its effects were momentous, and they may still be felt and seen today.

The transition of open prairie to enclosures of barbed wire was actually a social revolution among the early-day settlers and ranchers. To some, it was a threat to job security, to others it was the only solution to continued living on the Great Plains. To most, it meant a complete change of traditions, daily work and the acceptance of a new way of life.

Since the beginning of time, man has constructed his barriers from natural materials adjacent to the barrier site. These materials were mostly wood from trees, stone, thorny brush, and mud. When settlers arrived on the Great Plains of America, they found these materials in short supply, thus creating a demand for a more economical type of fencing.