MICHAEL SCHULER

It's now been over fifty years since I fell in love with my craft, and I've been faithful ever since. When a friend or client asks when I will retire, I tell them, "If I were a jazz horn player or a water color artist, you wouldn't be asking me this question. I hope the last box I make is the one they bury me in..." Just recently, I learned of a Japanese concept called, "Ikigai." You find your Ikigai at the intersection of these four things: Something you love to do. Something you're good at. Something the world needs. Something you can get paid for. The moment I heard of the concept, I realized I had been lucky enough to find my own Ikigai as a very young man, the moment I made the decision to leave college to follow "the Way of the Carpenter." I even announced my journey in advance! When my esteemed karate Sensei received my letter formally proclaiming the beginning of my "Era of the Carpenter," it must have made him laugh, at least a little. But the intervening decades have proven..