Ed Minch wrote: "... lately, for the last few years, I have felt at times an
overwhelming sense of joy.  My latest project is a perfect example.  It is a
white oak guitar with plenty of bling, and at 3 stages during construction I
have spontaneously burst out in laughter with a mental high that rivals anything
I have bfelt so far.  This morning was the fourth time when I got back a part of
this guitar that I collaborated on with a local artist.  This feeling lasts for
a couple of hours and is among the most deeply satisfying feelings I have had -
rivaling family highs.

"Has anyone else felt this joyous emotion with your woodwork or other
trade/craft/hobby?"


My "overwhelming sense of joy" moments seem to come from research. A couple of
weeks ago I I traveled 25 miles to get a copy of a four-page article identifying
the man who bound this:
https://www.cs.tcd.
ie/John.Byrne/libproj/book7.jpg
and this
https://www.cs.tcd.
ie/John.Byrne/libproj/book4.jpg

in eighteenth-century Dublin. No research collection in the country has a file
of the "Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society" volume 35, but I ran it down in
the crammed one-room library of the United Irish Cultural Center in San
Francisco. I found it on the shelf after the (volunteer, but professional)
librarian drew a blank. Read it waiting for the trolley home. I kept laughing
with joy as I read it, and it kept me smiling for a couple of days: its a
brilliant piece of research based on a lucky find, a discovery that is simple
but very important (in my field), and clearly and elegantly written.
I don't seem to get the same rush out of things I make; I'm too much aware of
the things that went wrong until a long time after I make them. By the time I
really enjoy them, the shock is gone.
Tom Conroy