warning: buried anger issues may be found at random points in this post!
I recently read the some of the best 9 pages of writing ever--and I've done quite a bit of reading. It probably won't become classic literature but it made me want to jump up and down and yell, "YES!" So, I forced my husband to listen to it as I re-read it. (He was greatly amused and nodded agree-ingly quite often) Then I wanted to run out and grab people off the street to tell them about it. (Probably a good thing I didn't...) I also wanted to make a list of people that I thought really needed to hear it. (Probably not a positive/healthy move at the dawn of a new year...)
I know. You're on the edge of your seat, aren't you? Well, if you're a knitter you've probably already read it. If you quilt, sew or have some other hobby involving a fascination with fabric, go buy it--or get it at the library--and just insert "fabric" where it says "yarn". It's just as funny. I promise you. I'm talking about Stephanie Pearl- McPhee's latest book, All Wound Up.
(image: Amazon)
If there is one comment that sets me off it's the one about my time. The one that insinuates I must have nothing better to do. The one that says to me "I'm sooo much busier [aka, more important] than you that I could never waste my time doing that." So, you can imagine my immense excitement when I read the first chapter of Stephanie's book. Hopefully this doesn't get me into some sort of trouble but I have to tell you about it. She starts it out explaining how she passed time in a waiting room, knitting happily away while the woman next to her, mindlessly thumbing through waiting-room-quality magazines, worked herself into a lovely, and completely unproductive, frazzled fit...which ultimately led to a conversation that ended in that comment.
Stephanie poses a great question: "How did doing something productive become a symbol of having idle time, while being idle is seen as having no time?" Oh, bravo! "In no time at all, we've managed to become such a consumeristic, product-driven society that people have stopped thinking that it's a waste to buy something you could make yourself and started thinking that it's wasteful to make something that you could be buying." She sums this crazy attitude up in a mind-boggling (at least to us crafters) sentence: "I don't want to waste time making mittens; I want to spend time buying them."
bhg
Do you know the average person spends four hours a day in front of the tv? (Yet one more reason I love not being "average"!) What could be done in four hours a day--oy, it hurts my head!!! I'd venture to say that most truly creative people spend less than half that time watching television. I don't usually spend 4 hours a week in front of it but when I am there, I have something--knitting, quilting, etc--in my hands. The watching of television--while sitting as "inert as dirt"--has become a completely normalized activity while knitting--which, by the way, uses both sides of your brain and is obviously productive--is an indicator of having time or even wasting time. Stephanie, you have put into words the confusion and frustration that's been going on in my brain for many years!
Us creative types, we create. And if we aren't finding enough time to create, then, by golly, we create time. It's all about how passionate and determined you are in your craft. We are just as busy as the next person. We just happen to be very good at fitting more into our day--and at taking out those occupations that are worthless and unproductive. Us creative types are also sneaky little multitaskers. Just yesterday, we took the kids bowling. Between turns, my hands were making a scarf. What am I doing while waiting on the kids at after school pick-up? When in a waiting room? Yup. See? It's like that.
In the last portion of her first chapter, Stephanie finally just muses that maybe "I don't have time" is a defense--some are just trying to "justify their own slacker ways." I have to admit, in finding such a kindred spirit who has such kindred thoughts, I completey indulged myself in a resounding, "A HA! I THOUGHT SO! HA HA!" No, probably not that "new-year positive and healthy attitude" that I mentioned earlier but please, oh, please. PLEASE let us creative people have our moment! After all, we've had to put up with others looking down their too-busy noses at us for years. Meanwhile, look at all we've accomplished right under their noses and they are just missing out on it all.
I don't mean to sound bitter at all--I'm not really. But, Stephanie, thank you soooo much for starting my year out this way! For letting me know I'm actually pretty sane. That I'm not alone. And for giving me the boost that I needed to go at it even stronger than before!
Us creative types, we create. And if we aren't finding enough time to create, then, by golly, we create time. It's all about how passionate and determined you are in your craft. We are just as busy as the next person. We just happen to be very good at fitting more into our day--and at taking out those occupations that are worthless and unproductive. Us creative types are also sneaky little multitaskers. Just yesterday, we took the kids bowling. Between turns, my hands were making a scarf. What am I doing while waiting on the kids at after school pick-up? When in a waiting room? Yup. See? It's like that.
In the last portion of her first chapter, Stephanie finally just muses that maybe "I don't have time" is a defense--some are just trying to "justify their own slacker ways." I have to admit, in finding such a kindred spirit who has such kindred thoughts, I completey indulged myself in a resounding, "A HA! I THOUGHT SO! HA HA!" No, probably not that "new-year positive and healthy attitude" that I mentioned earlier but please, oh, please. PLEASE let us creative people have our moment! After all, we've had to put up with others looking down their too-busy noses at us for years. Meanwhile, look at all we've accomplished right under their noses and they are just missing out on it all.
I don't mean to sound bitter at all--I'm not really. But, Stephanie, thank you soooo much for starting my year out this way! For letting me know I'm actually pretty sane. That I'm not alone. And for giving me the boost that I needed to go at it even stronger than before!
Happy 2012 to all of my wonderful new blogger friends!
May you create to your heart's content!!
Comments
TV time is wasted unless I am piecing or being creative. Thanks for the insights.
Have yourself a great day...and stop by to visit with me too if you like, my 'screen' door is always open to creative types.
Ciao Bella!
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Creative Carmelina