Chop Wood, Carry Water

I have NO idea who to attribute this picture to. It was all over the internet and I can’t find an original source. This librarian apologizes. 

Dear Evan and Lulu,

Last night your dad was on national television wearing a gigantic cheese grater on his head. Multiple times. As silly as this might sound he had dreamed about this moment for years and we all stood around our computer and screamed as we watched him do a goofy “Go Bears” dance. After the screaming died down Lulu asked calmly “which one was daddy?” even though he was the only one in the picture with a giant grater on his head. Family and friends sent us the video so you can watch him do his dance for years to come. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSzHrCuM2g&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I teared up last night with excitement for your dad and for the two of you. He has worked so hard to make this dream come true. Millions of people who saw him last night, and then all over the internet today, will never know all that went into this idea. The reason I love his Graterhead so much is because I watched from the very beginning as your dad had an idea. He had an idea and instead of asking how someone else could make it come true, he went and created it himself.

I’ll be honest, he obsessed over the first graterhead he made. And at this point he had no idea he would ever prototype it and sell them.  I remember him searching craft store after craft store for just the right metallic looking material. I remember him buying loads of fake fingernails of just the right length to simulate the slots in a grater. Every day I walked in the door he would show me the progress and I would look at him like he had partially lost his mind. Because he spent WEEKS building a gigantic cheese grater hat!

But now here we are. He built that thing not in a day, but over weeks and then months and eventually years. He researched, and compared, and made it over again. He had an idea and he made it a reality with his very own hands. The true essence of being a Maker.

I want this for the two of you so badly. I want you to have ideas, and to test them, and to build them. I want you to destroy them, and ponder them, and eventually rebuild them better than ever. I want you to know what went into the making of the Graterhead because it has everything to do with the type of people you are.

You are makers. Like your father. You make the world beautiful.