Why We Make Things
I believe we make things because that’s what we were made to do. Not even to make things, but to be making things. We are the little creators of our lives and the world as we know it. I spent the weekend with my kids, and one of my favorite moments was yesterday afternoon when we were at a trampoline park and my daughter decided to build a fort out of foam cubes that were meant to break the fall of any child catapulting themselves into a squishy sea of them. As Amelia began building her fort, she asked if I would help her, and of course, I was happy to oblige. Then her older, eight-year-old brother came along and asked if he could join in. She said okay. Then a few minutes later, another girl—a stranger—just joined in without even asking. Not long after that, a small group of boys walked by and said, “That’s a good idea!” Minutes later, I saw them building their own foam-cube forts. Amelia’s fort grew to enormous heights and spanned the length of the play area so broadly that the poo