So great is our passion for doing things for ourselves,that we are
becoming increasingly less dependent on specialized labour.No
one can plead ignorance of a subject any longer,for there are
countless do-it-yourself publications.Armed withe the right tools
and materials,newlyweds gaily embark on the task of decorating
their own homes.Men,particularly,spend hours of their leisure time
installing their own fireplace,laying out their own gardens;building
garages and making funiture.Some really keen enthusiasts go so far
as to far as to build their own computers.Shops cater for the do-it-yourself
craze not only by running special advisory services for novices,but by
offering consumers bits and pieces which they can assemble at home.
Such things provide an excellent outlet for pent up creative energy,but
unfortunately not all of us are born handymen.
Some wives tend to believe that their hus-bands are infinitely resourceful
and can fix anything.Even men who can hardly drive a nail in straight are
supposed to be born electricians,carpenters,plumbers and mechanics.
When lights fuse,furniture gets rickety,pipes get clogged,or vacumm
cleaners fail to operate,some women assume that their hus-bands will
somehow put things right.The worst thing about the do-it-yourself game
is that sometimes even men live under the delusion that they can do
anything,even when they have repeatedly been proved wrong.It is question
of pride as much as anything else.
Last spring my wife suggested that I call in a man to look at our lawn mower.
It had broken down the previous summer,and though I promised to repair it,
I had never got round to it.I would not hear of the suggestion and said that
I would fix it myself.One Saturday aftermoon,I hauled the machine into the
garden and had a close look at it.As far as I could see,it needed only a minor
adjustment:a turn of a screw here,a little tightening up there,a drop of oil
and it would be as good as new.Inevitably the repair job was not quite so simple.
The mower firmly refused to mow,so I decided to dismantle it.The garden was
soon littered with chunks of metal which had once made up a lawn mower.But
I was extremely pleased with myself.I had traced the cause of the trouble.One
of the links in the chain that drives the whells had snapped.After buying a new
chain I was faced with the insurmountable task of putting the confushing jigsaw
puzzle together again.I was not surprised to find that the machine still refused
to work after I had reassembled it,for the simple reason that I was left with several
curiously shaped bitsof metal which did not seem to fit anywhere.I gave up in despair.
The weeks passed and the grass grew.When my wife nagged me to do something
about it,I told here that either I would have to buy a new mower or let the grass grow.
Needless to say our house is now surrounded by a jungle.Buried somewhere in deep
grass there is a rusting lawn mower which I have promised to repair one day.