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
