MILLWRIGHT
POET

Topics: Calling; Christian Life; Gifts; Purpose; Work

Reference: Acts 18:1–3

In the furniture industry of the 1920s, the machines of most factories were not run by electric motors but by pulleys from a central drive shaft. The millwright was the person on whom the entire activity of the operation depended. He was the key person, says Max DePree, former CEO of Herman Miller. He goes on:

One day the millwright at Herman Miller died. My father, being a young manager at the time, did not know what to do when a key person died but thought he ought to go visit the family. He went to the house and was invited to join the family in the living room.

The widow asked my father if it would be all right if she read aloud some poetry. Naturally, he agreed. She went into another room, came back with a bound book, and for many minutes read selected pieces of beautiful poetry. When she finished, my father commented on how beautiful the poetry was and asked who wrote it. She replied that her husband, the millwright, was the poet.

It is now nearly sixty years since the millwright died, and my father and many of us at Herman Miller continue to wonder: Was he a poet who did millwright’s work, or was he a millwright who wrote poetry?

—Max DePree, in “Work and Spirituality,” teambuildinginc.com

PART 21: PARENTING