The Blacksmith and the Stranger

Jake, the blacksmith stooped slightly to enter the pub door. The barman put a pint of best ginger ale on the bar. "Compliments of the house." Sort of a rural insurance policy. Smithing is thirsty work.

Better not to start Jake on the beer.

The locals were waiting to see the fun. There was this townie fellow who'd bailed up all the locals and asked them weird questions. Not personal questions mind but inquisitive questions never the less.

Questions like, "Who's the best at ... "So, how did you know _when_ to do that." Damned inquisitive they thought. Never mind Jake would sort him out. Not too many people argued with Jake and those that did received "a brief kinaesthetic response which sort of defined the meaning of the message."

"Hello" said the stranger, "You must be Jake."

Jake looked right through stranger as though he wasn't there and then as if by way of afterthought added, "And who might you be ? "

"I'm a teacher." said the stranger doing his best to look right through Jake. No easy task. The half closed eyes might help.

"Do a bit of teaching myself, " says Jake.

This is mind blowing conversation for Jake and the locals paused with drinks at their lips and stared intently at the faded pictures on the walls.

Eye contact with Jake wasn't exactly rude, just dangerous.

"Yes." continues Jake, "I teach the steel."

"Right." said the stranger, I'm not too familiar with smithing, if its OK with you, how exactly do you teach the steel?"

"Steels got memory." said Jake.

George in the corner took a gulp of his beer.

"Is that metaphorical?" says the stranger.

"Meta_ for_ic ...." says Jake,

"Yeah meta_ fori_ lurgical. is that."

George choked quietly as his drink went down the wrong way. Better than spluttered at anything Jake said. Much better.

"I heats the steel but not enough to melt it mind. Just enough to make it uncertain about which way is which so it forgets who it was. Then I hammers it as it cools so it comes out in a certain shape. Now you, not being a blacksmith, might think it was all done. But there's the learning you can see on the surface and then there's the deep learning." "You better explain that one" said the teacher. "Well this is how my father taught me and his father before him. You takes the steel and heats it again in the forge so it is reheated. But the steel ... it remembers a bit ... so its not so uncertain as it was the last time. Each time I heat it and hammer it as it cools, it anneals inside.

It gets more and more certain that its not just a lump of steel.

Eventually it knows it is a sword or a plough shear. When I am finished it can remember who it is. Bend it and it springs back cause its got memory now. Holds its edge too ... So how do you teach?

"Much the same. Much the same." replied the teacher, "Can I buy you a drink.

The barman announced a bar shout. After all he was putting it on the teacher's tab. The way he figured it, learning like that shouldn't come free.

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