Warning: Brief Political Rant. Feel free to skip it. Just pick up reading after the squiggly line. Feel free to laud it. Arguing with it will get you no where.
I keep hearing this expression bantied about by Bush supporters. "Unity". Seems those that voted in a way that differed with my vote feel I shouldn't be upset. That I should "opt for unity." That I should support a man now, simply because 51% of the voters in the last election agreed with him. I should suddenly change my morals, my religion, and my beliefs. Here's the thing. Silly me, I opted for unity before the election, by not voting for a man that caused the rest of the world to hate us, and couldn't stop there, so went ahead with bastardizing 10% of our own population, along with destroying animals and plants (hey, if they don't die and rot, how are we going to replace all that oil???)... Silly me to try to unify with my vote, and not simply bend over afterwards. If 51% of the voters jumped off a cliff, would I do that too? They did, but I won't.
I don't hate those who voted for Bush. I'm 100% certain that a few of the people I love and respect a great deal did, as a matter of fact. I don't think they're going to hell for casting their vote. I just honestly don't understand why they did. Not even a little bit. And I'm not going to support someone as a leader that goes against every moral I hold in my heart, every bit of "what a Christian should be" that I know to be true, simply because 51% of the voters did. The best I can do is try to respect that they voted with their hearts, and hope that they know that I am now acting with mine. They can respect that or not. It won't change me.
Rant ended. On to knitting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I know you didn't want to hear my politics, anyway, you just want to hear about the retreat. So here you go...
The evening after the dye workshop, the rest of the attendees began drizzling in. Once everyone arrived for the weekend, we were 64 strong of fiber lovers. One in particular had the daunting task of living with me for the weekend. Here Anjeanette is, getting a spindling lesson (there were many of those going on). She's in the green tee-shirt and glasses. Isn't she cute?
She was an absolute joy - I couldn't have asked for a better roommate. We also shared the unspoken idea that we wouldn't spend a whole lot of time together during the days - not because we didn't like each other, but because we'd have time in the room to catch up, and as it was, there were so many people, I still missed out on getting to talk to many of them. I'm so glad I had her - she was a big part of making this the best retreat yet for me, and I love her dearly.
Everywhere you looked there were folks knitting, spinning or happily just making friends.
Here's Shelia (standing) chatting happily to Annie (in the denim jacket) and others. Don't tell Annie I have her picture - she tries to tell people that Methodists don't allow their pictures to be taken for fear it will steal their souls... I was raised Methodist, too, so I know better
(but then, when have you seen a photo of me on this blog?
)
There was a show-and-tell Friday night, when we showed off our greatest joys, and our greatest mistakes... one of the most amazing things to me showed off the intricacy of knitting, as well as the longevity of the craft - Helene's skirt, knitted for her by her aunt some sixty years ago...
During the weekend, we all got a chance to try new things. Help was never far away. Enablers were often closer than that! Anyone who so much as glanced at a spinning wheel soon had one (usually my Fiona) in front of them. This is the product of several brand-spanking-new spinners.
And this was one of my favorite pictures of the weekend, because I found it so telling about the spirit that Clara and her loyal followers can envoke. The past two years, Leslie and her daughter Amy attended the retreat. Last year at show-and-tell, Amy stood up and showed us a tiny sweater she had made. "This is for my daughter," she said. "I'm going to China to pick her up in a few months." We all cried with shared joy. This year, we got to meet that daughter, the adorable, very well-behaved, and precious Noelle. Along with Noelle's great-grandmother, Leslie's mother. So here you have four generations of beautiful knitters.
That's what knitting is about.
And now, your moment of Zen:
I keep hearing this expression bantied about by Bush supporters. "Unity". Seems those that voted in a way that differed with my vote feel I shouldn't be upset. That I should "opt for unity." That I should support a man now, simply because 51% of the voters in the last election agreed with him. I should suddenly change my morals, my religion, and my beliefs. Here's the thing. Silly me, I opted for unity before the election, by not voting for a man that caused the rest of the world to hate us, and couldn't stop there, so went ahead with bastardizing 10% of our own population, along with destroying animals and plants (hey, if they don't die and rot, how are we going to replace all that oil???)... Silly me to try to unify with my vote, and not simply bend over afterwards. If 51% of the voters jumped off a cliff, would I do that too? They did, but I won't.
I don't hate those who voted for Bush. I'm 100% certain that a few of the people I love and respect a great deal did, as a matter of fact. I don't think they're going to hell for casting their vote. I just honestly don't understand why they did. Not even a little bit. And I'm not going to support someone as a leader that goes against every moral I hold in my heart, every bit of "what a Christian should be" that I know to be true, simply because 51% of the voters did. The best I can do is try to respect that they voted with their hearts, and hope that they know that I am now acting with mine. They can respect that or not. It won't change me.
Rant ended. On to knitting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I know you didn't want to hear my politics, anyway, you just want to hear about the retreat. So here you go...
The evening after the dye workshop, the rest of the attendees began drizzling in. Once everyone arrived for the weekend, we were 64 strong of fiber lovers. One in particular had the daunting task of living with me for the weekend. Here Anjeanette is, getting a spindling lesson (there were many of those going on). She's in the green tee-shirt and glasses. Isn't she cute?
She was an absolute joy - I couldn't have asked for a better roommate. We also shared the unspoken idea that we wouldn't spend a whole lot of time together during the days - not because we didn't like each other, but because we'd have time in the room to catch up, and as it was, there were so many people, I still missed out on getting to talk to many of them. I'm so glad I had her - she was a big part of making this the best retreat yet for me, and I love her dearly.
Everywhere you looked there were folks knitting, spinning or happily just making friends.
Here's Shelia (standing) chatting happily to Annie (in the denim jacket) and others. Don't tell Annie I have her picture - she tries to tell people that Methodists don't allow their pictures to be taken for fear it will steal their souls... I was raised Methodist, too, so I know better
(but then, when have you seen a photo of me on this blog?
)
There was a show-and-tell Friday night, when we showed off our greatest joys, and our greatest mistakes... one of the most amazing things to me showed off the intricacy of knitting, as well as the longevity of the craft - Helene's skirt, knitted for her by her aunt some sixty years ago...
During the weekend, we all got a chance to try new things. Help was never far away. Enablers were often closer than that! Anyone who so much as glanced at a spinning wheel soon had one (usually my Fiona) in front of them. This is the product of several brand-spanking-new spinners.
And this was one of my favorite pictures of the weekend, because I found it so telling about the spirit that Clara and her loyal followers can envoke. The past two years, Leslie and her daughter Amy attended the retreat. Last year at show-and-tell, Amy stood up and showed us a tiny sweater she had made. "This is for my daughter," she said. "I'm going to China to pick her up in a few months." We all cried with shared joy. This year, we got to meet that daughter, the adorable, very well-behaved, and precious Noelle. Along with Noelle's great-grandmother, Leslie's mother. So here you have four generations of beautiful knitters.
That's what knitting is about.
And now, your moment of Zen:
posted by Amie at
10:02 AM
9 Comments:
Thanks for sharing about your retreat experience. I hope to make it to one someday :) Also thanks for the Spirit Trail referral. Jen is putting some fibers together for me later this week. I can't wait :)
I think the whole unity thing is kind of a cop-out. I mean, it's easy to ask for "unity" when you have the Oval Office and a majority of the House and Senate. It's little more than a threat to the Democrats to not bring up anything controversial, in my opinion.
o. I am so glad we both "got" why we spent the day meeting new people. I would have loved to hung out with you during the day, but then I knew I got to hang out with you at nite.. no sense of hurry then. Meeting new people and seeing old friends was a great experience. I'm so glad we got to hang out!
Ditto what you said about unity and all that. Mind if I swipe your countdown to next election thingy? :)
Yeah, finally some political ranting. :) The more people I find that are experiencing the same thing, the better I feel. We can be "united" but we don't need to endorse a president that we strongly disagree with. We can be "united" together and work for change!
I'm so jealous - you went to the KR retreat. I remember when they were planning the first one and knew I couldn't go. Now with school looming, I know I probably won't go for a long time unless we move closer. Glad to see you had a great time.
More great pics.
Anj is awesome. I'm so happy you guys had a blast. I wish I could've been there but in a way after all these stories I feel like I was.
enjoyed your pictures Amie and I am soooooo jealous
I bet you all will be counting the days for your next retreat
shaggy
Maybe Bush means "u-KNIT-y".
I dunno, it's a theory.
A friend of mine said a co-worker of hers voted for Bush because he "wants to put Religion back in the schools." My friend's comment back was: "Which Religion? And don't say Christianity, because then I'll ask you what BRAND of Christianity".
Good question, and one I'm sure we'll be struggling with in years to come. Thanks for your thoughts.
Greetings from a concerned citizen and knitting maniac who is too lazy to sign up, so must post anonymously!
I saw your comment on Kerstin's blog about the solarbus link! I've been following it daily, and am still waiting for these facts to hit the mainstream media -- will they ever?
Anyway, keep on spreading the word to friends, family and knitters!
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