It amazes me how people react to seeing someone knit or spin yarn in public. Puzzled looks, deer-in-headlights stares. Even the occasional rolling the eyes in disbelief. I have seen people almost give themselves whiplash as they turn their heads because their minds could not register what they saw.
Have we become that removed from our past that something as simple as knitting a sock can get the same reaction as seeing a bearded lady? The answer is, yes.
Despite how advanced we consider oursleves we have become creatively dumb. Lawyers can't thread a needle. Doctors have no clue how to mend a sock. Research scientist are all thumbs when attepting to knit. And the greatest political figures of our time would go speechless if you asked them to weave a simple breadcloth.
We brag about heading toward a 'Star Trek' society. But what if we end up back in a colonial world? If the current suicide rate as a result of the present economial downfall is any indication, I fear the amount of people who would rather face death then face the idea of cutting their own wood, milking their own cow or growing their own food.
The sad truth is that as our society advances in technology we are becoming less self sufficiant to the point that we are nothing more then instinctly derelict monkeys slugging microchip poop at each other.
It is a hard pill to swallow, as it should be. There was a time when we weren't so weak and helpless. Our 'uncilivized' ancestors managed to build homes, make clothes and grow their own food all with their own two hands. And yet we have to hire outside labor just to clean the leaves out our pools and cut our grass.
Fortunately there is hope. The growing number of hobby farms, the slow food and slow clothing movements and those who have always refused to succum to the laziness of our society- they are the ones we need to look to. It is the woman canning her own home grown food or the man that raises and shears his own sheep that will be able to survive and thrive through the economic changes of our world. The closer you are to the Earth, the less of an impact the trials and woes of the world will have on you.
Please, don't think I am anti-technology. If it wasn't for medical advances I wouldn't be alive today. I just think that there needs to be a balance. Mega stores should not be in control of what I eat, what I wear and how I should live my life. God gave me two hands, not to use to click on keyboards and swip credit cards all day, but to create beauty in this world and to experice the giving and receiving nature that comes from being a living and breathing creature of this Earth. Dammit, if the hands of humans could build the Great Wall, the least I should be able to do is knit a sock.
[/caption]
[/caption]
