Last week, in the US, we celebrated Thanksgiving. It's a celebration of our abundance of food and we generally go all out. We went all out at our house because that abundance may not be there forever. I wanted to be sure we celebrated abundance without waste, so poor Rob has eaten leftovers until he gets a little green around mealtimes. But, it's not like he ate the same old meal, over and over. We had turkey sandwiches and turkey pot pie and turkey taco soup. And, before the big day, we had jalfrezi chicken curry and gumbo so he had other flavors under his belt (hahaha, I crack myself up) before the season of leftovers began. We finished all our leftovers and tonight, I'll make him something that is not similar to poultry in any way.
Last week, after I finished that thread crochet square, I decided I wanted to try tatting again. I've tried once or twice before and never got the hang of it. I started two really complex pieces not designed for beginners to try to learn. I cut those off the shuttles and tossed them and started with a heavier thread and a pattern that I watched a lady make on the internet. I threw away a lot of thread before I got it. One night, I sat watching TV, huddled over my work as my fingers fought with the knots, putting them in, taking them out, getting discouraged and starting over. After a bunch of false starts and one long chain, just to learn the hand movements, I managed to make a snowflake. It wasn't very good, but at least it was a complete pattern. And, then I made another and another and another and now, I have 15 not so great snowflakes, but each one is better than the one before it. I'm still struggling with tension, but I'll get the hang of it, if I keep trying. This is definitely a beginner pattern. The one in the lower left corner is a different pattern. More complicated and while the snowflake looks ok, it has a lot of errors. (yes, I stacked them so you couldn't look too close. There's supposed to be 6 rings in each one. But some have 5 or 7, depending on how much attention I was paying)
Yesterday, I starched and blocked them and since I had all that out, I also blocked the square from last week. I managed to get it to a 12" square (sorry for the angled photo), so I guess those rectangles aren't as hopeless as I thought they were. Of course, I took a UFO apart before I realized that.
As our tradition dictates, we decorated for Christmas over the weekend. I'll give you a sneak peak, but then show other photos over the month. Every year, I dread putting up the swag, but when it's done, it's beautiful and I can start to dread taking it down.
Last week, someone used the word woke in a derogatory way. I wasn't in a position to call it out, but later, I wondered if the speaker even knew what "woke" meant. And, I wondered if they realized I think of myself as very woke and whether they would have said it if they did.
Now, woke isn't something I woke up one day and became. My 'woke-ness' started as a child. My parents did their best to instill in me a belief that the prejudice I saw all around me was a bad thing, an example I should not follow. When I was in high school, we had many conversations about prejudice and my parents set an example of kindness toward the Black people we lived among. They are human and they grew up in a different time and prejudice peaked out once in a while, but they were setting a different example for me to follow and were careful that the message didn't get mixed. That included inviting the first black person they'd ever had as a guest in their home. Today, that sounds like a big nothing, but in 1978 in Louisiana, that was a big freakin' deal!
The world was changing radically during the 60's and 70's and my Dad especially encouraged me to keep up with current events. I doubt he realizes the example he set by reading the paper and watching the news every day. (We were a Cronkite household.)
Being woke is really no big deal. I know MAGA has made it out to be a big deal, but it's all about kindness and empathy and understanding and trying; all the lessons I learned in church. It's not about seeing Blacks or Mexicans as equals. It's about seeing EVERYONE as an equal with an equal right to succeed and an equal right to exist and an equal right to love who they want and live the life they choose for themselves. It's also about presenting everyone with a range of options for how to live their lives and not locking them onto one path that they and their children must follow for life. It's about helping one another and caring about one another.
It's about trying to be a better person, every day. Today, I will be more accepting and better informed than I was yesterday, and tomorrow I will be better than I am today.
Okay, that's enough for me today. Follow those who seek the truth. Run from those who claim to have found it.
Lane
8 comments:
From what I have seen, read, and heard, the word "woke" isn’t being used in a positive way anywhere at this point. I do see that you are using it that way, and I’d like to relay some information from my experiences. And, I’m going to skip the derogatory way that GOP-ears use it because clearly you’re familiar with that. Here are two ways I know of progressives being dissatisfied with the term now. I also want to note that I’m White and am a mid-40s academic researcher in the social sciences. That seems relevant here.
Younger people (the under-30/35 crowd) and academics (of varying ages) aren’t happy with the word at this point because it suggests that one is done with the work and has arrived, whereas we should see ourselves as being in process. "Becoming" as Michelle Obama might say :) So, we may be "awakening" but we can’t be "woke" because it implies that we are in an end/completed state. Theirs is a problem with the term itself.
The other reason people are skeptical of the term, and I believe this is mostly people of color, is sort of an extension of the first reason. That is, those using "woke" to describe themselves are comparing themselves favorably to others who are not woke and seem utterly unaware of the fact that they still have work to do. People who call themselves woke (nearly always White people) are often comparing themselves to others and positioning themselves as the ones who are better. I have heard, first-hand, Black people discussing and laughing at a situation in which some White people who had called themselves woke in a meeting (I’m involved with our local Democrat town committee here in Massachusetts). They and found it hilarious because the White people were not self-reflective enough to ask for other viewpoints on a particular topic. Instead, they were merely comparing themselves to people who were even less self-aware. In this way, White people calling themselves "woke" when they were really only something like half-awake was funny to the Black people whom I heard chatting and chuckling about it. This is a problem less with the term itself and more with who is using it.
You don’t have to publish this comment. I’m not trying to correct you. What I mean to be doing is telling you something that I see and hear locally (in Massachusetts) and in my work (mostly in DC) because it seems to be different from your experiences. And I'm guessing that may be of interest to you.
Who was it that said "We have met the enemy, and he is us' Great post
I must be awakening because I sure still have a long way to go. Thanks for the info Suzanne!
I'm so glad that you gave the definition of 'woke'. I only noticed it being used in a different manner than before. I even looked it up and really didn't understand what they were trying to say. The definition that you posted is easy to understand. I do enjoy your blog. Thanks for sharing and keeping us up to date on different subjects.
The snowflakes are amazing. …..and THE SWAG! We’ve been waiting for the swag. Glad you had a good thanksgiving. Yes, there’s always leftovers. That’s the reason they make big turkeys. Have you ever seen a 2-4 pound Turkey? Never….
Thanks for sharing. Mary
Thanks for a great explanation of Woke - it is something I have never understood but now I do.
Amen, brother.
I was taught in school, in the 60s that the human race started off in Afica and changed color as we went farther north to colder lands. In other words we are all black people under the skin. People are people no matter what color they are. No difference really.
Post a Comment