Ready to Learn

Bumblee bees, woven in double weave - most likely on a Jacquard loom

I suppose I might have chosen the bumblebee as my logo when I was setting up my business as it was this cloth that finally inspired me to take the leap and consider becoming a professional/production weaver.

Bees are considered industrious and focused on their task.  But butterflies embody change - change that is cellular, transformative.  And that is pretty much what I did - changed the focus and direction and shape of my life on that fateful day.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear, it is said.  I have learned over the decades that the teacher has always been there - they were just waiting for me to pay attention and notice.

This is true in all of human activity.  We are finally beginning to wake up, as the saying goes, and seeing things that need to be addressed, changed, transformed.  In many cases, we begin with ourselves - because until we see, we cannot change.  We live, as Ziya Tong puts it, in a Reality Bubble, seeing only what affects us.  (Read her book if you want to shake up your bubble.)

Some of us take longer to learn than others.  At my age, I have seen a lot of stuff happen.  For me the things that I have experienced are not just history, but actual events during my lifetime.  I have seen the hippies of the 60s and 70s age, some giving up, some continuing to be activists, others more middle of the road - it doesn't affect me, so...

I confess that in many ways I have been so focused on my own personal burdens that I have not paid as much attention to larger systemic issues as I should have.  But I'm old now, and have begun to find my voice.

As part of my life experience, I have survived various viral diseases, diseases that are largely beaten back and - until recently - were rare enough that many younger people figured they were non-issues.  Non enough that they didn't need to get vaccinated*.

I have seen people pooh-pooh such elementary precautions as self-isolating and wearing a mask, confident (complacent?) that they will remain safe from harm.  It is true that there are hot spots and if you don't live in one, you may think it won't, can't, happen to you.

I live in a town where there have been very few cases, all mild.  I am old enough to remember waves of measles, mumps, chicken pox, scarlet fever, whooping cough, racing through the population because one person went to a large city and brought it back.  And the next thing we knew, children were catching it, some of them dying.

Mumps carried the additional adverse effect of infertility for males.

So I hear that in this town grocery and other stores are seeing lots of people without masks, not maintaining physical distancing.  The last store I went to - a small 'department' store - had staff with zero masks that I could see.  Doug and I were two of the very few shoppers wearing masks.  We went in, quickly did our shopping, left as soon as we could.

The province is beginning to 'open' up - it was never in lock down as such, only strong recommendations from Dr. Henry to stay home, businesses with close contact were closed, including schools, public facilities, etc., eventually a recommendation to wear masks - but other countries truly were locked down.

People are getting restless wanting to go somewhere, do things with their friends.  And schools - parents are faced with the whole issue of sending their children to school in a month.

On the back burner is the whole issue of climate change and we still have not discovered if there is a link between this pandemic and the changes happening to the climate and therefore the world, as glaciers melt, sea levels rise, temperatures zoom to breathtaking heights.  53 C yesterday in the Middle East.

I see what is happening and feel powerless to make actual change.

What I can do, because I have lived through pandemics before, is take precautions.  I have the privilege of being able to stay home, so I stay home as much as possible.  When I go out, I wear a mask.  I stay in touch with friends via the internet.  I have one friend I email nightly as we share our days - a habit we got into years ago and maintain to this day.  I have other friends I contact via Messenger.  I have done Skype, Facebook and Zoom calls.

Mostly I know that I am not alone, just choose to physically isolate myself, take myself out of the line of transmission - because I can.

If this pandemic can teach us anything, perhaps it is to take responsibility for our own actions.  Stay home.  Wear a mask if you need to go out.  Maintain physical distancing - like the stitch n bitch group I belong to, meeting today in my carport because it is large enough to let people spread out and it is not a confined space.

Stay safe everyone.

*get your vaccinations - the diseases like mumps, measles etc., are not gone and herd immunity means 90+% of society needs to be protected against the virus.  I don't recommend getting these diseases 'naturally' when a vaccination will provide protection.  If part of an anti-vaxxer's research does not include the death rate from these diseases prior to, say, 1950, they haven't actually done any research that is meaningful.  Protect the vulnerable from the diseases by having vaccinations, including one against Covid-19 if and when one can be found.