A Justice Site
Home - About Us - What's NEW?
MIRROR SITES: CSUDH - Habermas - UWP
SEARCH: Site Index - Topics Index - Archival Index by Volume
DOUBLE-CLICK any word for definition.
Sometimes of Theory
California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: May 5, 2009
Latest Update: May 5, 2009
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
patriciaacone@yahoo.com
- Introduction
My e-mail contained a link this morning to Margaret Huber's You Tube video on the Bullion Stitch. As I watched it, I realized that we needed a reference file that would help us find instructions for stitches without searching madly through all my notes, which I usually can't find anyway.
I haven't created these files before because I was too busy trying to catch up with all that has been done in crocheting and knitting in the thirty years, well, OK, forty years, since I was in college. That brought to mind the raison d'être The ease and relaxation of the rhythm of working with fiber returned, and kept me going, as I struggled with redefining my identity after retirement. Knitting and crocheting are very much Zen-like activities for centering oneself. (Site the book on Zen and knitting. It's upstairs, or was, somewhere. jeanne's note to herself.)
Notes to myself:
- Start wherever. As is made so clear in Art and Fear (add site and link) the important thing is to start. Don't plan. Just start.
- If making, whatever it is you make, gives you pleasure, then you have found a wonderful tool for managing anger, frustration, conflict, and the impossibly complex demands of living in a global, well, sort of global, world. Say a prayer of thanks.
- Tools were an integral part of man's (generic man's) coming to civilization. Crocheting is the procedural use of specific tools. Knitting is the procedural use of specific tools. Hunting is the procedural use of specific tools. Building with wood, or with ceramics, or with metal are all the procedural use of specific tools. And all these activities (as well as many others) provide for many tools integral to the management of the stress of living in a global setting of limited resources. Doing things directly with tools that are affordable and accessible puts us back in touch with the whole life cycle of creation, distribution, wear, replacement. They provide the local, individual component of creation, innovation, and contribution to community that often disappears to the local perspective when community grows beyond tribal numbers and engenders government.
- Appreciation of small things we can make the time to create on our own helps reinforce the perspective that conveys the beauty of craft, art, the labor intense production of skilled individual production. At the same time, appreciation of such skills and the time consumed in their application provides us with some knowledge of how much is lost by industrial production of similar items. That doesn't mean we shouldn't produce such items in plastic instead of wood, for example, unless the plastic begins to endanger the ecology of the earth. Hopefully craft and the fine arts, with all the effort and learned skills they require will help us see that we could never supply everyone with all the necessities of a pleasant standard of living without such industrialization. But we must never lose sight of what we have lost in the process of moving to a fairer distribution of the tools and products that create this higher standard of living. Crafts, play, fine arts of all kinds, and entertainment are the ways in which we defuse from the fast pace of today's world.
- And when we center our individual identities, in the midst of today's modern settings, we should be able to better understand that fair distribution of resources and products does not necessarily mean an end to the creative role of individuals in our communities. Habermas feared that we had lost the skill of governance discourse. I think Habermas misjudged the extent to which entire populations had ever become skilled at governance discourse. Technology is rendering just distribution of production (consider the cell phone) ever more possible.
- Careful development of our skills in making things, with a very broad definition of "things," balances our fungible roles as part of modern urban locales. In other words, my work everyday may not be as fulfilling as I'd like. But by holding on to skills that define my own unique crafts, play, fine arts, and strong local and distant relationships with my many communities I define a meaningful identity for myself. That identity should permit me to more readily understand the "other," and to engage in more meaningful governance discourse in my communities.
- Discussion Questions
- Why should I bother to relate crochet instructions to Habermas' theory of governance discourse?
Consider the high level of mental health distress in today's fast-paced work world and "keep up with the Joneses" social world. Look at the remarkable appeal of the "mansion-sized" home, and it's role in the recent housing crash. There is more to life than accumulating "more." But the quick appeal to more glitz, larger size, more flash has much to do with the drift away from savings and towards spending more than our wages can cover. Craft and art, play and entertainment do not have to be expensive. My cat would rather romp in my knitting than with any number of toys I could provide for him. Children are much the same. The quality of the time we spend together, of the skills we build in doing so, and the relationships those activities grow does more for us than all the toys we can accumulate.
The wisdom of understanding that the community in which the individual thrives is as important as the creativity the individual contributes to making that community one in which all can thrive, the wisdom of that understanding leads to governance discourse Habermas and I would be much happier to trust in for the future of mankind. jeanne
- References:
- Reference
- Reference
- Farlex Free Online Dictionary:
