Why I make pipes

[TreverT]

This is a copy/paste from my latest pipe blog entry, but I thought it
was a moving enough subject to post here, as I think it might touch a
great many people. For the curious, the original article can be found
here:

http://www.talbertpipes.com/2007/08/why ... pipes.html

But here is the full text:

Why do I make pipes? There are lots of reasons. It's fun, I get to be
my own boss, I love working with the wood, and I get to do something
creative for a living. However, there's another motivation that I
don't speak of often, because it borders perhaps on the squeaky New
Agey realm, and that is that I believe that making other people happy
is a good thing to do in this life. Good karma, if you will. All over
the world now, there are people who come home from a long, maybe
difficult, perhaps even traumatic day, and cap off their evening by
spending a few restful minutes with a drink and one of my pipes...
Something that I made gives them a few minutes of relaxation and
peace. I believe this is a good purpose, possibly even one of the best
purposes we can hope for in a lifetime. But I don't talk about it
much, because so often the world of pipe collecting gets bogged down
in the bickering, forum wars, and minutia obsession that it's easy to
lose sight of the noblest purposes of the hobby, at least until you
get an email like this one:
____________________________________________________________________________
>From Louise Gariépy,

Hi!
I am Hans Peter Strobl's wife. We talked a little bit when Peter
ordered his last pipe from you

I am sad to tell you that Peter did not receive your last message.

When he ordered the pipe, I don't know if you knew it, he was in the
Hospital, going through a necessary but dangerous procedure: a stem
cell transplant. He had a been fighting a very resistant lymphoma
since more than 2 years, and this stem cell transplant was the only
hope, not that he could be cured, but might life a year or 2 longer..

He came out of the hospital Friday the 13th of July, seemed pretty
well, but only 8 days later, he died of a heart attack probably
provoked by a deterioration of his red cells, because he felt much
better in the first days out of the hospital, but started feeling
abnormally weak 6 days later.

He admired your work so much, and at least I can tell you that your
pipe had come timely, he was extremely happy with it, and had a chance
to smoke it at least once. As a matter of fact, it is the last pipe
that he smoked before he died, and he did it with great joy!
Had the pipe arrived a few days later, it would have come too late,
and my heart would have been still more broken, if possible.

I do not know you, and do not know much about pipes, except that it
was his life-long passion.

Had he lived, he probably could not have resisted the pleasure of
buying another of your beautiful pipes ( he showed me your web site so
often), I wanted you to know that if you never hear again from him, it
was not because he did not like the pipe!

Maybe when you build your next pipe, please think about him for a few
seconds.

Be happy and healthy as long as possible,

Louise Gariépy
__________________________________________________________________________

There isn't much more I can say to this very moving letter, except to
the line, "Maybe when you build your next pipe, please think about him
for a few seconds."
I definitely will.

Trever Talbert

[geigerpipes]

Trever

Nice topic...that pretty much sums up why I sit inside in a dusty, noisy enviornment all day..Thanks for reminding me..I might add the posibility to never stopp learning and enhancing your craft in new directions wich I take much joy it is what life should be,evolving and ever changing...

What a touching Email wow ...May he rest in peace..makes you happy that you went to the post office in time

[Nick]

That's really cool Trever. Not new agey/goofy at all. I remember when I was working at a pipe shop, this lady came in and asked to see the best pipe we had in the store. I was still new, so I asked my boss to handle it. Well, it turned out that the woman was buying a last birthday present for her father, who would probably die in a few days time. I'm afraid i don't remember what he would die of. Linda, my boss, took the time to show the customer several wonderful pipes, going into detail about why each one was special. In the end, the lady picked a stunning Tinsky fan that was just gorgeous. Not the most expensive pipe in the shop, but certainly a beautiful piece. She was in tears as she paid for the gift. I never heard back from that customer, but I hope her father enjoyed the pipe.

[KurtHuhn]

Isn't it funny how, out of all the objects that one might collect, there are only a few that can precipitate the kind of emotional response that pipes can. In my personal collection of stuff, I take true emotional delight in my pipes, my knives, and my truck. The common thread among all of them is that I use them daily. I always have a folding knife in my pocket, a pipe in hand or nearby, and my truck never fails to plant a huge sh*t-eating grin on my face when I hop in (though there was that day that the engine ate itself....).

Thanks for the reality check, Trever. I think most pro and semi-pro pipe makers have a story or two like that. Keeping our customers in mind when working in the shop can really helps us in so many ways.

[sethile]

I had just read that on your blog, Trever, and was very very moved and blessed by it. I love knowing our lives and our work have the potential to touch others deeply like this. It's a huge inspiration--thanks!

[bluesmk]

Trever,
Thank you for the reality check. Moving to say the least!
Lung ta brother
Dan
Gabrieli Pipes

[bscofield]

Great post Trever... I had never thought of it that way. While I take to my pipes in the same way, I never considered that a potential owner would do the same... Nice perspective on things. Thanks!