Note Value

October 13, 2022

The first time I took my daughter Madison to a children's book festival, she was about 3. We walked into the gymnasium where the authors were sitting behind the tables piled high with their works. I explained that we would buy some books, and then talk to the authors and illustrators so they could sign them for us. 

Madison looked at me with huge eyes. "You mean... PEOPLE make books?" she asked. 

As you might have realized if you've read this newsletter for a while, I prefer to know the world from the inside out: I profoundly love the "guts" of everything, and I also love showing my kids that anything is possible. So a few weeks ago when I was in L.A. for the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert, I decided it would be poetic to tour Drum Workshop in Oxnard to learn how master craftsmen make the world's best drums. One thing I learned was that each wooden drum shell has its own unique resonance—its own note, like C or F-sharp or A-flat—which can't be predicted in advance, only measured once the shell has been created from ultra-thin layers of plywood. The drum head and hardware are added later, making it possible to tune the drum the way the drummer needs, but the shell itself starts out with its own unique note value. Now I know, and so do you, because PEOPLE make drums and are willing to show us how they do it.

It's easy to forget, even if you're no longer a kid, that people make everything (everything that's people-made, anyway), not just books and drums, but bridges and websites and management systems and everything that pushes goods and information around the globe. Through my teen years, I felt that the world must function through magic processes that ordinary people could never understand. As you can imagine, I've made sure my own kids have not made this mistake: At this point, they're tired of hearing me say that if someone can do something, so can they, but of course that doesn't prevent me from saying it again.

Madison's "people make books" epiphany so long ago helped me see, forever after, the people in the stuff. The overall effect still feels like magic, but it's magic that I—and my kids, and you, and your kids—can learn, from the inside out. And as we learn, we keep adding layers to ourselves... ultimately crafting a resonance all our own.

—Deb