Welcome to the Cultivar of Knowledge, a brand-new article series debuting here at Well-Sewn this month. For years, members of the staff have enjoyed deep and meaningful conversations on a variety of topics ranging from stories from the ancient civilizations right up to the modern period. As passionate scholars for the field, it is our belief that history is not merely meant to be relegated to the classroom or the textbook but can be of a benefit to all that have the desire and patience to learn. In fact, it was one such lesson from history that played its own special part in the very foundation of this website, all thanks to one man and his affinity for hunting.
The Patron Saint of the Hunter
Around 656 CE, a child of noble blood named Hubert was born to the Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine, the grandson of Charibert, the King of Toulouse. As a child of regal means during the early medieval period in Europe, Hubert availed himself to all the trappings of wealth: good food, education, and perhaps his favored pastime, hunting. So enamored was he with hunting that he spent most of his free time hunting in the fields surrounding his home in modern-day France. Even in an age of deep-rooted belief in the supremacy of Catholic orthodoxy among the Frankish lands, Hubert would continuously hunt even on holy days – a sacrilege under Catholic law.
He even allowed his wife, Floribanne to accompany him on his hunting excursions. The two would have a son, Foribert, but shortly thereafter Floribanne would become ill and die due to complications from childbirth around Easter in 684. According to tradition, Hubert consoled himself in his grief over his wife’s passing by retreating into the woods to hunt. On the morning of Good Friday, Hubert was in the forest when he began tracking a large stag; the stag turned to him with a cross between its antlers, and it spoke to him, warning him that unless Hubert turned his life towards God, he would be doomed. Prostrate on the ground, Hubert asked the stag what he was to do, in which the stag directed him to find a local religious leader, Bishop Lambert.
Hubert would go on to have a major religious conversion, forsaking his noble titles and giving his wealth to the poor before entering a life of religious service. Today he is venerated as the patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians, and metalworkers, and the emblem of the stag’s head with the cross between the antlers can be found in various iconography throughout Europe and North America. It was the symbol chosen by our founder and chief proprietor to represent our brand, Well-Sewn. And no story of legend better illustrates one of our core principles than that of Saint Hubertus.
Balanced Living and Moderation
The story of Saint Hubertus is not one of condemnation towards those who hunt; those with even a basic understanding of their Christian theology recognize God’s relationship to fishermen, after all. Rather, the story of Hubertus is one of learning to moderate one’s behavior and to balance the pleasures of life with the responsibilities of life. Spending all your time following your hobbies may be gratifying for a season, but it leaves you devoid of feelings of worth, material or otherwise on the long curve. Having the ability to forge a happy medium between pleasurable activities and the necessary tasks of the day is a critical part of living a balanced, healthy lifestyle.
Therein lies one of the most overlooked aspects of being a connoisseur in all things; balance and moderation. Many believe that only those with the financial means to engage in the finer things in life can be ‘connoisseurs’. In fact, the term connoisseur implies that one is competent to pass meritorious judgment over a field of inquiry, such as fine art, food, music, et cetera. Competency is not purchased through money, but through studious observation and a keen interest in a given field of expertise, often through years of patience and devotion to the study of a particular craft. Hubertus was a connoisseur of the hunt, but he was not a connoisseur of life until he recognized where his love of hunting fell in the order of precedence.
Traversing the pitfalls of a hectic world today can make finding our own order of precedence difficult, as getting our affairs in order can sometimes entail great sacrifice and painful submission to circumstances. Sometimes the world around us shapes us like a crucible, where the excesses of our lives are tempered away until what is left is hardened and capable of enduring every trial. Living a balanced life means finding internal strength, a strength that sometimes comes only through our suffering failures. As many a wise person has said however, there can be grace in our failures if we know where to look.
The example of Hubertus teaches us to prioritize that which is most important and allow everything else to find its place in your life. If you have struggled to find clarity or have failed to achieve your goals in a particular endeavor, consider whether you have given your present circumstance far greater station in your life than it was meant to have. Conversely, consider whether you have devoted enough of your efforts to solving the problem that you face; sometimes, the problems that doggedly persist are the problems that we doggedly seek to avoid confronting, even to our own detriment. We are, after all, painfully human and prone to bouts of illogical behavior sometimes. Such is the nature of imbalances in the uneven life.
Balance is not always easily struck in life, but it is a worthy goal to pursue in and of itself. Balancing responsibilities to friends, time pressures at work, any number of factors is an every day part of life as is. Having the wherewithal to recognize the challenge and confront it head on is the first step in learning how to achieve that modicum of stability the connoisseurs among us seem to enjoy so effortlessly. Hard work and dedication to living in the moment as much as we do for the moment means recognizing that each day will present its own unique challenges that can shake up the ordinary and turn the mundane into the extraordinary. Yet even if the problems feel like quicksand threatening to drown you in over your head, no problem can ever truly destroy you unless you let it. Balance is not a gift of the universe; it is the prize for the studious and the hardworking.
This is the first in a running series of articles designed to help you find balance, to help you achieve a greater sense of understanding on a variety of topics and issues that can help make you a more rounded individual. Our motto here at Well-Sewn is as much a rallying cry as it is our slogan: we help refine the connoisseur within. The Cultivar of Knowledge as a concept is geared towards unlocking knowledge and wisdom for our readers; not merely to improve one’s performance at trivia night at the local pub, though as a byproduct one could do much worse. Instead, our focus is on unlocking potential, the skills and the principles that help people to live the most meaningful, impactful lives possible. Being a connoisseur in all things means as much to the people around you as it does to yourself, at the end of the day – helping others reach their potential through the knowledge and skills you have picked up through years of study, trial and sometimes adversity.
Welcome to the Cultivar of Knowledge
The Cultivar of Knowledge maintains as its guiding principle to educate, enlighten, and entertain. Sometimes, knowing things for the sake of knowing things is perfectly fine, and more power to those that search out knowledge just to learn new things. But for those that are looking to improve themselves and are looking to find a new path forward in life, we believe that by looking to the examples of the past, we can help individuals forge new trails through the great undiscovered country of possibility here in the present. Taking the road less traveled can sometimes lead to feelings of anxiety or apprehension, but that is part of taking the risk that connoisseurs take when branching out into new fields. Learning how to manage the risk is in and of itself part of the reward.
Over the course of this series, we will explore various events and epochs of history, from great figures to great events, little known facts to well known yarns. At each stop along the way, we hope to encourage you to think differently than you have before about the topic at hand. But in all things, we hope to encourage you to learn to appreciate the gift of knowledge, to value it for the priceless treasure that it is. With knowledge, you are equipped with a power that gives you invaluable experience towards fulfilling your goals. That is the prize for a life lived Well-Sewn.
