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A ubiquitous handy man legend is probably best viewed as a homily that amply demonstrates the difference between the value of an action and of the knowledge behind the action: Anyone who has handed his car over to a mechanic knows the lesson of this legend very well. With a few smooth moves, a skilled grease monkey can strike straight to the heart of that annoyingly disturbing sound the car owner was baffled by. Ultimately, the solution may come down to a matter of tightening a few errant screws, and thus seem (on the surface, at least) to have not required all that much effort. But even as he winces over the bill, the car owner is struck by the realization if the problem had been left solely with him, he'd never have solved it or even known where to have begun. In the 1880s, James MacNeill Whistler, as plaintiff in a libel action, was challenged, For two days' labour, you ask two hundred guineas? No, I ask it for the experience of a lifetime. That seems an apt summary of the message of this legend. The value of work can appear contradictory in that those who are visibly busy frequently earn but a fraction of those who seem to not be doing all that much. Judged by the eye alone, the secretary who can at the end of the day point to the stack of letters she typed would appear to be worth more than the executive who at the end of the same day can display no physical manifestations of what she's spent her time on. Equally, one who flips burgers and fills orders appears far more productive to the naked eye than the manager in charge of the place. What is the value of a task? As this legend points out, performing the actual labor can easily be the smallest part of the process, with the real value lying in correctly diagnosing the problem and coming up with a viable solution to it. Ultimately, a task is worth whatever the person who needs it performed is willing to pay, whether the work is cerebral or manual. Getting back to our legend, we find that at various junctures the basic story will appear in a reworked format, now starring a different famous name. Lore is often migratory, and anecdotes tend to gravitate towards the person they would most likely apply to. Ergo, a parable about a workman's worth will tend to affix itself to Tesla or Edison, inventive geniuses who went hands on with the mechanical world. Our tale wasn't always attributed only to famous men, though; often the unnamed mechanic, plumber, or electrician steps to the forefront to take his bow: Sightings: In May 2018, the Facebook page Humans at Sea attracted more than ten million views with a video-based version of the tale titled Story of an old man. That iteration told the same story about an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster: Variations:
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