Omar Khayyam of Naishapur (I prefer the old spelling) was a tent -maker, as I have observed before. In the past the truly great seminal thinkers were all tradesmen of one sort or another, that is they did not expect their thinking to pay their wages, but earned their living with their hands – as you ought. It would be better by far if we had remained with this system instead of being burdened with a horde of useless quarrelsome university parasites – of enormously lesser intellectual worth too.
Socrates was a stonemason (sculptor, if you like). Jesus a carpenter – and Nasrudin – well there was never someone else quite like Nasrudin. ‘The Exploits of the Incomparable Nasrudin’ by Idries Shah is the best book you have never read. You can read it for free here I promise you it will have you rolling in the aisles laughing! And if you have never read the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as you should, I have reprinted it all here: Oh Come With Old Khayyam I think it was the most important book I read as a teenager. I am so grateful that an ancient lady next door (Mrs Sewell) gifted me her copy of it – which I still treasure.
I wonder whether Khayyam had a table he worked on or whether he laid out his tents on the ground as I have done until now, but my knees do no want me to continue to do so, so I have made myself a large folding table for the purpose.
I needed it to be wide enough to lay out material at least 5’6″ (165cm) wide and 13’6″ (405cm) long so I laid it out and built it on the garage floor like this.
And here it is, almost finished – is anything ever?
I had some old folding legs I had scavenged so that I could fold it up against the wall. You might just be able to see castors at the bottom two corners which allows me to scoot it over to the wall once I have folded one side’s legs under. I can fold and unfold it by myself.
Here I am laying out The Grey Flyer It is such a doddle compared with working on my hands and knees on the ground, and I can get it millimetre accurate. I can also use one side as a pattern piece for the other which saves so much time!
See Also: Oh Come With Old Khayyam NB: This post includes a complete (best) version of the Rubaiyat, a must read. Nasrudin again, here.
