When I started this blog in 2008 I was still grieving for my brother who had died very suddenly in February of that year. I was dealing with medical issues of my own (adverse drug effects as it happens) but was finally seeing improvement. I was dealing with survivor guilt (my brother was six years younger than me, well loved in this town - it should have been me, not him). I had to figure out a way to - I don't know - justify? - my continued existence.
So I called the blog Weaving a Life.
Now, here we are in the midst of a deadly pandemic. I have been writing this blog, two or three times a week (on average) until suddenly people were being faced with physical distancing, dealing with cancelled plans, postponed classes (which may or may not also be cancelled), dealing with isolating themselves from friends and family.
And I had this platform.
Over the years I have written about weaving and how I have been dealing with my life. I have had to self-isolate on several occasions, so this wasn't new for me. It was just different because everyone was having to do it.
And so I paused my weaving content (mostly) and have been writing about what is happening in the world right now.
As a child I wanted to write. Tried to write, with little success. In school I did ok with essays, but when I wanted to express my inner most thoughts the poetry I wrote was juvenile (I was, after all a teenager with all the angst that entails) and my fiction was formulaic.
I set any dreams I had of writing aside.
And then I chose weaving as a 'career'. A life, if you will. I began writing class hand outs and then magazine articles.
A student called me a storyteller and I had to agree. I had found my story. The story of textiles. How they were made. It seemed I truly did have a knack for words - they just weren't the ones I had expected would resonate with other folk.
And now, here we are in 2020 in the midst of a pandemic and I have a platform. Someone once challenged me to use my platform to speak up and out about things happening in the world. I saw how many people were struggling, so I chose to press pause on the weaving content here and move it over to my ko-fi account, and focus on hopefully helping people get through this time, as best they can.
If you came for the weaving content, I hope you will stick around for the pandemic diaries. If not, I understand. Hopefully we can all get back to life (more resembling) normal soon.
2 comments:
Laura, I follow you regularly. No matter what you write. As a country, America has never dealt with the problem of bringing in slaves and the aftermath has been going on since the foundation of our country.
Our problems don't end there. Corporations now run the country. The treat their workers as slaves. Sure, put everyone out on unemployment, but our health care is tethered to our work, so don't get sick in this pandemic.
I routinely self-isolate because I'm a farmer. I tend to stick around, watch my critters and crops and do a bit of fiber work. The not being able to attend any fiber related education pinches, but not near as much as watching the whole darn thing come down. Wait, am I in Rome? Is this a bad dream?
The minute this pandemic started I said to my husband...."Watch and see, first we'll have lock down. Lock down will lead to civil insurrection, then martial law, and then democracy will come to an end." My husband thought I was being all doom and gloom. But I told him, look in SF, they're boarding up the high end stores. They even boarded up the hardware stores. They are expecting looting. Which means "they" have a plan. When our elections are suspended, I hope you Northern Lights take pity on us.
We are on a domino roll. The horrible racism that exists here is just the tip of the iceberg. There is more to come. Sigh.
On another note, I loved your video on "Being an Efficient Weaver". My husband loved it too! So that yarn valet was a eye opener. Do you think I can heave the warp over the railing of the stairs and weight it down? I'm moving trying to make the move to being consistent.
I have really appreciated your comments in this pandemic and now the Black Lives Matter protests. You seem to have the words that no one else does. So keep it up!
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