Groom Of The Stool

As a painter/handyman I mostly work alone leaving me to the entertainment and sometimes displeasure of my own thoughts.  The intention of this blog is to provide an outlet for all the vast random thoughts that knock around in my head while working all day, and to write about all things food related and urban planning/policy (and sometimes policy that effects food). 

For the most part I like this type of work (handyman) - I'm my own boss, I hire my friends and there is a satisfying immediate sense of accomplishment when the job is done.  However, I still consider myself an Urban Planner and when people ask what I do I stumble around trying to explain that I'm a laid off Urban Planner who is back in school for my Masters and I work as a handyman for a temporary form of income.  It's time's like these, and the times when I cannot escape my head, that the work feels like a drag.  Like I'm torturing myself and wasting my education and intelligence....am I dong the right thing going back to school?

Then I start to think of the Groom of the Stool. The Groom of the Stool in short is an appointed position to wipe the excrement  from the rear end of royalty...yes...this is for real.  When I first heard of this I couldn't help but question what type of person had this job. Was it a punishment, was it something that you aspire to do and apply for?  Royalty, you never cease to amaze me with conceit and traditions.  However, it turns out that the Groom of the Stool is the most intimate person to the King and is witness to the Kings secrets and privileged information.  Thus this man becomes feared and powerful.  Eventually, throughout the decades, the position of Groom of the Stool transformed itself in to a high level government positions in finance and matters of the state.

This leads me to think...people who have held literally one of the crappiest jobs in history have gone on to be powerful and successful.  Not that I want power, but it does make my job seem less crappy and I re-focus on my passion for my studies and the personal success that will follow.  I know one day explaining what I do won't be such a bumbled ramble.

Groom of the Stool fact in history:  Groom of the Stool Sir Henry Norris apparently got a little too intimate with the rear of King Henry's second wife and was beheaded for adultery.