> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Author:: Albert Borgmann > Reference:: Borgmann, A. (1984). _Technology and the character of contemporary life: A Philosophical Inquiry_. University of Chicago Press. > Date:: 1984 > Tags:: #warp > WeftLinks:: [[Spiritual value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Craft gives meaning to life]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > By focusing on devices, technology disconnects us from the world. Handmade objects are "focal things" that offer a meaningful connection to the world. ### Highlights > Deictic discourse is about something that addresses us in its own right and constitutes a center by which we can orient ourselves > it constitutes a focal concern and a fruitful counterforce to technology > The Latin word _focus_ means hearth > the Romans the _focus_ was holy, the place where the housegods resided > There are no longer images of the ancestral gods placed by the fire; but there often are pictures of loved ones on or above the mantel, precious things of the family’s history, or a clock, measuring time.2 > Wilderness on this continent, it now appears, is a focal thing. > Amidst the complication of conditions, of the _Bedingungen_, we must uncover the simplicity of things, of the _Dinge_.11 A jug, an earthen vessel from which we pour wine, is such a thing. It teaches us what it is to hold, to offer, to pour, and to give. In its clay, it gathers for us the earth as it does in containing the wine that has grown from the soil. It gathers the sky whose rain and sun are present in the wine. It refreshes and animates us in our mortality.