September 16, 2013

The opposite of Madness

Happy Monday morning, my friends.  This blog post comes to you from a motel room in Maine, as I take the long way home from Squam.

I'm taking an extra day to visit a friend before I tackle the big drive, which is fine with me, because it turns out that long distance solo driving turns me into the kind of person who yells expletives in the car (not at anyone, just because I've hit my limit) cries in motel bathtubs (again, I'm not sad, just past it all) and apparently, puts her bra in her purse.

Squam was, of course, Squam - and along with everything Squam always is, it was also Taproot Squam - The Taproot Gathering, and while I know the people who put Taproot together and quite like them, I didn't know what the intersection of the two would look like. 

I will make a confession here- Amanda wrote today about her experience at the gathering, and she talked about when her kids came home from camp with a whole new language that her family didn't really "get". It was charming and funny, but an experience her boys had shared that the rest of them weren't in on, and how that made it hard for the family to connect with their experience.   I thought that might be what the gathering was like.  I am not the sort of person who "holds intentions" or "moves mindfully" though my day, and when people say an experience was "real" all I can think is "how could it not be?" I mean, if it's not a hallucination, it's real - right?  I try to be kind, and I try to be articulate and I try to get on with my fellow humans in a meaningful way, but that language isn't part of the way I talk about how I live and I wondered if that would be a barrier.  It wasn't. 

It turns out that that everyone who's living in a way that's designed to reflect their values and ethics is pretty much on the same page.  Sure, I don't raise chickens, but I want to be the person who buys your organic eggs, and my family didn't want or need to un-school our kids, but I did want to shape their education to reflect their personalities and needs, and it turns out that even though I use different words (mindful= thinking, intention= plan) I'm on the same page.  I had a wonderful time.
I have a lot to say about this, but I'm having trouble making it all come together in a motel.  I'm sure my idea's will firm up while I'm driving.

In knitting news, I'd taken my Kusha Kusha scarf with me to wear, and it occurred to me that I'd never taken pictures of it as a finished object. 

It's knit from one strand Habu stainless steel/merino, and one strand superfine merino, held together, and then not, and it took me years to knit, because the yarn annoyed the crap out of me. When it's done, you felt it lightly.

I had a vision  of a post-apocalyptic my-clothes-are-all-rags but-I-am-still-chic sort of look, and since I look post-apocalyptic on a good day anyway, I thought I could pull it off. 

I imagined it layered over a black or white shirt, with a plain skirt or pants, and that's just how I wear it, and I love it.   The stainless steel in the yarn means it stays where you put it, and I'm a simple enough person that I can get hours of amusement out of that.  It's fabulous - and somehow, even though in my mind it's straight out of The Matrix, it looks perfectly at home among the trees, like a spent leaf, or an old piece of moss.  You wouldn't think that would be a good look, but somehow, it suits me.

For anyone keeping track:

The baby blanket is a little bigger, and yes. It is tricky to hang knitting-in-progress in a tree for a picture, but the look on the face of passers-by is totally worth it.

See you tomorrow.

Posted by Stephanie at September 16, 2013 8:36 AM