January 2017
To Remember
“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (from Strength To Love)
Friday Links
1. This is a cool visual explanation of how some special effects were done in silent films.
2. This article about how not moving during the day “will kill you” got me to download the same app and now I’m the weirdo in my office doing squats every hour.
3. This is a good thought, from the ultra-escapist blog of a British architect/designer:
But without burying my head from problems at all, I’d merely urge you do what I always try to do, and that is this. Look at that little part of the world that you can directly influence, in your own way: it might be your front yard, your street, your village. And do whatever you can to make that world just a bit better in the next twelve months. And if we all managed that – well, that would be a powerful, powerful thing.
New Year Thoughts
Wednesday Poem
An ode to clearing things out, and the daily grind, and to staying in bed.
By Philip Appleman
like furry mittens,
like childhood crouching under tables)
The Ninth Day of Xmas, in the morning black
outside our window: clattering cans, the whir
of a hopper, shouts, a whistle, move on …
I see them in my warm imagination
the way I’ll see them later in the cold,
heaving the huge cans and running
(running!) to the next house on the street.
My vestiges of muscle stir
uneasily in their percale cocoon:
what moves those men out there, what
drives them running to the next house and the next?
Halfway back to dream, I speculate:
The Social Weal? “Let’s make good old
Bloomington a cleaner place
to live in—right, men? Hup, tha!”
Healthy Competition? “Come on, boys,
let’s burn up that route today and beat those dudes
on truck thirteen!”
Enlightened Self-Interest? “Another can,
another dollar—don’t slow down, Mac, I’m puttin’
three kids through Princeton?”
Or something else?
Terror?
A half hour later, dawn comes edging over
Clark Street: layers of color, laid out like
a flattened rainbow—red, then yellow, green,
and over that the black-and-blue of night
still hanging on. Clark Street maples wave
their silhouettes against the red, and through
the twiggy trees, I see a solid chunk
of garbage truck, and stick-figures of men,
like windup toys, tossing little cans—
and running.
All day they’ll go like that, till dark again,
and all day, people fussing at their desks,
at hot stoves, at machines, will jettison
tin cans, bare evergreens, damp Kleenex, all
things that are Caesar’s.
O garbage men,
the New Year greets you like the Old;
after this first run you too may rest
in beds like great warm aproned laps
and know that people everywhere have faith:
putting from them all things of this world,
they confidently bide your second coming.
Tuesday Project Progress: Birthday Liberty
I added some Liberty of London fabric to my cart when I was buying fabric for Doc’s Christmoose shirt back in November, calling it an early birthday present to myself. No one does “sophisticated My Little Pony” prints like Liberty and nothing makes a nicer shirt.
I also asked for this book for Christmas and have been reading it most nights. It’s delightfully bossy and full of expert tips. (Just wait til I try drape-fitting Matt’s next shirt!)
I’m going slowly on this one because I have to read my book and because it’s just nice to take my time, but so far I’ve attached the yoke (using the “burrito” method, a first for me) and also done some really great pattern matching on the button band, if I do say so myself:
Quiet
Friday Links
1. I’m not a Neil Gaiman reader (I know) but this series of illustrations Chris Riddell did for Gaiman’s “The Instructions” poem (?) is just lovely, including this one that sums up how I want to live:
2. And here’s some more first-of-the-year thoughts about finding your purpose in life (beyond taking care of creatures).
Words For The Year
I have this poster (from the OG hippies Bread & Puppet Theater in Vermont) ready to frame and hang up for my reminder for 2017 that things don’t have to stay the same. I can change. I can fight.
I want to re-examine a lot of whatI’ve just accepted as How Things Are, like “You have to go to an office to work” or “I don’t have a lot of muscles” or “There will be time for that later”. And RESISTANCE is a good motto as we face the next four years: let’s not get used to what we’ve elected.
From the post of a blog I follow that clued me in to the existence of this poster:
My friend sent me a small poster that says, “RESISTANCE of the heart against business as usual.” I look at it constantly as I work and am becoming my own little rebel unto myself, making the changes that need making, destroying old habits, learning new rhythms, and being ok. Just being ok.
So here’s to making the changes that need making, whether that’s pursuing a dream now or speaking out when you hear someone spewing hate.
Other useful links:
Tell Me What You Did Today And I’ll Tell You Who You Are
A 20-point Guide to Defending Democracy Under a Trump Presidency