Head, heart, hands

Getting them all in line

Hey y’all,

My dad and stepmom were both 4-H agents, so I grew up saying the 4-H pledge:

“I pledge my head to clearer thinking,
My heart to greater loyalty,
My hands to larger service,
and my health to better living,
for my club, my community, my country, and my world.”

Something about the fourth line — the fourth H — always struck me as unnecessary. Isn’t your health just taking care of your head, your heart, and your hands? What does “better living” mean?

The front pages of an old pocket notebook from 2019

I asked my stepmom about it one time and she told me that my intuition was correct: originally there were only 3 H-s: Head, Heart, and Hands!

I really love the simplicity of these 3 elements, and I think often about the head, the heart, and the hands when I’m trying to decide what kind of work I want to do.

the front cover of one of my diaries from 2019

Ideally, our work will engage our mind, our spirit, and our body.

In John Ruskin’s lecture, “The Unity of Art,” included in his 1859 book The Two Paths, Ruskin made a distinction between “Manufacture,” “Art,” and “Fine Art”: