As far back as I can remember I’ve always been at my best when I’m at home in my garage. I grew up on the back of a Harley, and my dad is the guy everyone called when something needed fixed. Both of those things led to me spending a lot of my childhood in the garage holding flashlights and fetching tools. It was out there I learned to to look past the symptoms to find the root of the problem and the the patience to see the job through.
As a teenager I took that and added to it the ability to weld and a creative mind to build some ridiculous chopper bicycles and started installing big thumping stereo systems and CB radios for my friends into various cars and trucks.
It was at that point in my life I got my first motorcycle, a 1974 Yamaha RD350. It was my Dad’s first bike, then was ridden by my grand father before being forgotten in the barn for years and becoming mine in the winter of 97. I had spent my childhood riding dirt bikes and 3-wheelers and took to the RD and that incredible engine and chassis felt like a part of me. Its the first bike I customized and I’m rebuilding it again. Ill post on that later.
When I head out, turn on the heater and crank up the music the world outside of those doors disappears. Its me, god and and my tools, what happens next is up to us and there are no expectations, deadlines or judgement. Its doing something simply for the sake of doing it. Its then, in those moments, when my mind is free and I’m able to see things clearly. The solutions that have eluded me for days or weeks appear out of the blue and seem so simple when I’m no longer actively trying to solve them. Its where I feel Gods presence and where he inspires me to be a better man, mechanic, welder, fabricator, Christian, leader, husband, father and gives me the tools to do it. The garage is my temple, it holds the alter at which I’m able to give the best of what I am to god.
When I look back at my life I have always felt the most comfortable, the most me and at my best surrounded by tools, parts and projects. I don’t think I’m alone here, most of the guys I know are the same way. If they’re not I have a suspicion they may be if they found the right thing to do while in there. I’m bike guy, Motorcycles are my passion and what I love to work on. For others its old cars, wood working, some have turned their garage into a lounge or a place to play music. Its anything you want it to be and a place that a man can be a man. Its meant to be a bit dirty and a place to get things done. It’s a sanctuary of masculinity and the last hold out of a bygone era. A time when the manual for your car told you how to adjust the valves and gap the points instead of warning you not to drink what’s in the battery.
We as men need to get back to that. We need our place, our things and a community of men that encourage us to be the men god created us to be. A place to help, educate, work, create, repair, restore, rebuild and relax. I aim to help us all find our place and what we like to do in it.
Exactly how that’s gonna work I don’t know. I do know that It has to start somewhere. So here it is, the beginning of something I feel God pushing me to do, I have faith and a drive to help as many men as I can escape feeling trapped, alone and unvalued and show them there’s a place you can go where you can find all of those things. The only question is does it happen in your garage or mine?
Josh