For All Intents and ..

First, I like to rehash what I wrote about years ago, a short one I read from somewhere.  A funny story – it was funny then, to me, anyway – that I keep recalling it every now and then, went like this:

There was a campground for boy scouts by the beach close to the sea where dolphins also come by each morning.  The camp director actually fed the dolphins at about the same time the boy scouts had their breakfast.  Each morning the camp director would announce breakfast to the boys and call out to the dolphins with, “For All in Tents and porpoises…“, to come and get it.  

Corny now, perhaps, but it was a clever pun I can’t shake off, that it was the title of my musing then.   

"The phrase for 'all intents and purposes' originated in 1546, in an Act of British Parliament that gave King Henry VIII the power to interpret laws in any way he wished".

When I read the above, a factoid of little significance now, pales against everything else we  know about Henry VIII.  It was also about "Absolute power corrupts absolutely".  So many stories about that too but this musing will not be about that.  It will not be about politics.  Neither about dolphins or porpoises.

However, the phrase "intents and purposes" held so much staying power and latent energy that it has not lost its relevance even in today's language and vocabulary - legalese or otherwise.  Today, we may use "virtually" or "in effect" to mean the same thing; but often we still hear or read "for all intents and purposes".

I chose this to be about life in general, personal ponderings for everyone.  It is one characteristic of language that two words taken together render both innocuous; separately, each has a far deeper meaning.

Intent, as a stand alone word is powerful. Purpose can easily be just as powerful, if not more so.  Yet, neither one is of any value unless propelled into action.  In physics, both will be defined purely as potential energy.  No different from a wagon load of coal, a barrel of oil or a giant boulder at the mountain top. Unless converted into heat and/or kinetic energy to perform work or exert power to move some other object, intent and purpose are both simply as useful as an ax or saw inside a locked tool shed.

However, when John says to Jane, "I intend to marry you", is that more powerful than when he tells a friend, "I love Jane.  Very much"?  The first sentence could be more powerful to Jane, more so to her mom - the eager future mother-in-law. Actually, John telling a friend he loves Jane is a lot more powerful than just saying to Jane, "I intend to marry you".  Think about that for a minute.

To all retirees like me, when we wake up each morning we intend to get up. When indeed we do, it's another day to be grateful for. We intend to do something. If we didn't act on that intention to do it, we find that the time to the next sunset will seem like taking forever to elapse. That might seem like a good way to lengthen the remainder of our time on earth but in reality it could be the shortest and awful way.  Let me pause and speak for those in nursing homes or living by themselves who are much too unable to act on their intentions.  We must never forget nor should we not care or wish them well in our prayers.  This musing will not speak to them.  It is for those, the reader like you, who is blessed with the ability to still act on mere intention everyday, greeting every sunrise with a purpose.  I am reminded of the last few verses from Rudyard Kipling's  poem, "IF":

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it.

Sadly, the subject-phrase is also used in the following quote:

"He was forty, out of baseball, and, for all intents and purposes, out of life".

Intentions reside in our head, denizens of our thoughts. Some, if not many, are fleeting visitors, others linger, a few are plucked and we act on them.  Others over stay, can be annoying, others become kibitzers - not in any good way - congealing into  harmful obsessions.  Still merely intentions.  But they have the power to sometimes become agents of over analysis. Analysis after analysis that leads to mental paralysis. 

Intent, the criminal kind, is not prosecutable in the court of law; fortunate for anyone not acting on impulse or intent to commit a crime.  Anyone who purchased a gun for the purpose of committing a crime is held blameless until the act of robbing an establishment.  

Two faces of intent and purpose we'd rather not intrude into our lives, either as a doer or the object of someone's deed.  Intent and purpose, both powerful in each own individual potentiality but let's focus on their good sides.

Intent is where everything humanly doable begins.  It was intended by our parents that we do well when we grow up.  Their good parenting was primed by the same intent.  It was our intent to do well in school because the purpose of a good education is to serve us well later in life.   

Intent and purpose should not wane post everything we have accomplished so far.  Intent and purpose do not and should not end at the water's edge of retirement.

Acting on one's intention to be of service to others through volunteer work is as rewarding or even of greater value over another's exotic hobby of collecting rare objects of art.  But no matter how noble or exciting an intention can be if left unfulfilled is of negative value against one simple undertaking that is acted on and finished.

The origin of the following proverb is not known but it first appeared in print in 1828:

 "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" 

This is the darker side  of intention though no less powerful when used to motivate others to do evil deeds.  We will not get into it any more than what we see in newspaper headlines, almost on a daily basis.  We will not look back in the history books for so many roads humanity had paved with good intentions, only for many of them to lead to places of unimaginable horror - man's inhumanity to another man.

We will leave it at that.  Let's go to another analogy. A more pleasant and practical one;  some readers may even find this useful.

A few weeks ago my wife and I decided we needed a round breakfast table in the kitchen area, replacing the rectangular one that is there currently. There is a purpose for why, which I will get into later. I suggested we'll just buy the table top only and I intended to build the base. Awesome, if not a bit ambitious intention (at my age). I found a company in Austin TX.  They will custom-make the top to my specification: 48 inch dia. round table, 1-1/2 inch thick, from solid red oak ( I intended to use 1 inch thick red oak stair tread at the home center to make 2-inch thick workpieces after gluing them up for the base) .  The manufacturer will make it a point to send me a diagram of the intended table, with all the specifications, once I place the order. It was going to take 2-4 weeks to finish. All of these were all intentions at that point until I gave them my 16 digit card number plus my signing on to the design they sent me.  I thought a lot about all those intentions, not the least of which was the cost (not cheap for just the top) and the hours and hours of building the base. 

I had time before the table arrived.  I have wood working experience though not necessarily about making the table base, let alone a plan or drawing of my intended idea of it.

First photo below is what the company sent me to see first and approve. It will be sanded and ready for staining and finishing of my choice.

  

Alas, the tabletop arrived (below) before I was done with the intended base!

It took two of the delivery guys to carry it into the house where I had them lay on the work table I had set up earlier. It was exactly as they promised, except I wasn't quite prepared for how heavy it was.  But for all intents and purposes, I am now well past committed. I intend to get this done.

Meanwhile, I was dry-fitting the cut parts (below).  At this point of construction it was already about forty pounds.  I intended for this to be a knock-down assembly construction. I was going to stain and finish the parts individually for later assembly inside.  It was going to be quite unwieldy to carry from the workshop, through the garage to the inside of the house.

Dis-assembled parts (below) stained and finished in the garage for better air circulation against the fumes.

Now, (below) I have it attached to the table's underside.  The challenge is how to flip it over, right side up, and ease it down to the floor without breaking my back or crushing my toes.  The work table surface is 30 inches off the floor and this table is now about 120-130 pounds.  

So many intentions cascading through my thoughts. I intend to do it this way or that, and what else will intrude before I get to do it.  And I will still need to move it to the intended nook, after moving the old table. I guess y'all will have to wait when I have this fully accounted for in my woodworking blog. And I can't have my wife watch me do it to spare her the anguish of my attempt.  We'll see.  It will not be but for a while. I will be waiting for a part.  A part of me who will want to do it.

Now, for the purpose of a round table.  As most of you know, my wife has Parkinson's.  Mentally, she is definitely very capable so  she still handles the detailed home accounting and all our financial records and she still likes the occasional card game.  The round table is a lot more suitable when  our two couple-friends come to play. The grandkids visiting us this Christmas also love the same card game we play.

However, I do intend to finish this by Thanksgiving.