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Editorial
by Bruce Neilson
Values
What is the glue of our civilisation? Is it the values that we pass to our children? I came across the following words recently defining Family Values. “You work hard. You protect and provide for your family. You put your responsibilities before your desires. You lend a hand when someone’s struggling, listen and hold a hand when someone’s hurting, speak up when someone needs guidance, stand up when the truth needs a friend.” * Missing is the current emphasis on ‘I’ and ‘me’.
Where does Meccano fit into the above? Could I suggest that building a model is hard work. Certainly there is physical and mental work in building a model and there are associated virtues of patience, tenacity, temper control, learned skills, and modesty at the end.
Responsibilities before desires? Do the lawns have to be mowed before you spend the afternoon completing a model? Do you read to your child at night (from an old issue of a Meccano Magazine)?
For the remaining values I would consider Meccano friends and Meccano Clubs fit very well into thinking outside of yourself. The problem that you are having with a model can have a fresh point of view when discussed with a knowledgeable friend. Club meetings are a gathering of like minded souls for the benefit of all rather than an armed confrontation. And certainly stabbing a bladed screwdriver into your hand is a time when a sympathetic word is needed.
Most (all?) of us learn the benefits of organised chaos in our Meccano collections, the ups and downs of collecting parts from the past, looking with repressed envy upon someone else’s purchase and good fortune, and recognising (and accepting) the Meccano skills of other people when a model of distinction is displayed.
I think we become better human beings as a result of having Meccano as part of our lives.
R. Bruce Neilson (* ‘The Trigger’ ISBN 0006483836).