Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Old Age Day by Day April 10, 2011

I'm still quilting and my desk looks like a garment factory. Very appropriate, since both my parents began in that industry, my Mom at 15, sewing in a pants factory, and my Dad a little older as a cutter in the same factory. He ended up with a career in jeans (Lee Jeans then Levis) and she sewed continuously: our clothes, drapes, slipcovers, coats, hats, tablecloths, you name it. She also knitted, croqueted, did needlework of all kinds, painted, and copied expensive cocktail dresses for her own use. Making something is so satisfying, and it's such a pity schools no longer have woodshop, metalshop, home ec, cooking and all the things that are useful and creative. Parents have to get together and raise money for art teachers or music. The importance of these creative outlets has declined, as if there is something a school can do to make every student into an executive with a big salary (we know already they don't make software geniuses, none of them finish college). We're sort of stuck with an educational idea that does not fit reality in any way. And if we take this concept too far, we will depend on the rest of the world to make things that we can no longer buy because we have no jobs ourselves. There is something wrong with this picture.

In my mother's day, making a baby quilt was an act of love and welcoming into the world. The check toward the $1,000 stroller is not the same. It's extortion, and takes all the ritual out of a significant event. It's a bit terrifying to me to see how we are erasing the emotional connections to others in this way. Anything can be bought at the store, but when you make something, it is special. At least I still think so.

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