Sunday Morning

What I would like to do is put the books away and weave a couple of spider webs onto my rocks…. I’ll get there. The rocks will wait….

Being moved by my textbook….

Kinship as an Adaptation to Poverty

One of the classic studies of how families cope with poverty was conducted by anthropologist Carol B. Stack in the late 1960s.  She worked closely with a predominantly black community she called The Flats, a section of a small, mid-western city in the United States of 55,000 people…..

…. Stack’s interest was in how the residents responded to their impovereshed conditions.  She discovered that they fostered kinship ties and created fictive kinship links to form close, interlocking, cooperative groups that would ensure economic and social support in times of need.  Few people earned a sufficient amount to provide them or their families with enough to eat or a place to stay on a regular basis; even welfare payments could not always guarantee food and shelter, child care, and personal possessions.  In this respect, the community resembled societies such as the Ju/’hoansi in which a person shares with other but expects them to reciprocate at some later time.  Anthropologists call this type of sharing generalized reciprocity, as distinguished from balanced reciprocity, in which items are exchanged on the spot; a direct trade of items would be an example.  Negative reciprocity is an attempt to get something for nothing or make a profit.  The advantage of generalized reciprocity is that widespread sharing ensures that nobody lacks the basic needs for survival.  People the The Flats cultivated diffuse kinship and friendship relaitons by giving when the could, so that others would give to them when they were in need.  These networks were often framed in a kinship idiom, even though no biological kin tie existed.

Taken from “Cultural Anthropology: A Problem-Based Approach” by Richard H. Robbins and Sherrie N. Larkin.

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I generally don’t take such large pieces out of books.  If I am going to quote something, a sentence or two usually suffices.  However, this time it was the whole section that moved me.

Generalized Reciprocity.  I suppose this is an ideal that I have held for most of my life.  I have achieved it, for short periods, with a couple of friends.  I failed miserably at it during the 20 years I shared with my significant other.  I am back to working on building “friendships” rather than structured “relationships”.

I think….

It is always so difficult to tell.  Especially when a person finds themself to be alone….

A Third Course for September

I am now registered in English, Psychology and Anthropology courses.  I know, it’s a light course load – however, this is in addition to the 45-50 hours a week I put in at my steady job….  Not to mention the website.

My apologies for a whiny post.  My writing will improve – the course material should give me lots of interesting thoughts to write about.  Plus, there are still the rocks 

And my real excitement for the day?  My Porsche is back!  My little 944!  It’s here and soon I will be able to drive it again.  It needs a water pump.  A major job, and I have found someone I trust implicitly to do the work.  (We even had sushi together tonight.)

My little 944 is a 1986.  Black on black with the original “phone dials”.  That didn’t make any sense to me the first time I hear it either.  If you spot an old 944 driving down the road, take a look at the wheels.  The wheels have great big, bold holes in them.  Just like an old fashioned phone dial.

The car is, and always has been, a bit of a bitch to keep running.  But it is a sweet little drive – and it was a gift….

I am going to go to bed happy tonight.  My ‘other’ car is back and it really is a Porsche.  Maybe tomorrow I will write out the story of what happened the first day it landed in my driveway.

My Favorite Book

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

“I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive.

But the Skin Horse only smiled.

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I need to read this every so often. To remind myself of – what Real might Really be…..

my brain….

“My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery– always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What’s this passion for?”

Virginia Woolf

I won’t put many quotes here.  This morning however, this one resonated.  I’m studying for a psychology midterm on Tuesday.  I did finish the presentation for anthropology for Monday.  And, I am still washing mud off of my granite rocks….

Is this normal?

Wonderful plans….

I had wonderful plans for rocks tonight…..

Tonight though, I am going with a friend to look at a mobile home that he is considering buying.  It’s a big deal for him!  He needs a second pair of eyes to take a look at this place.  I have my fingers crossed for him that it is as nice as it sounds.

Maybe tomorrow for rocks.  Tonight is for a friend.

English – University English!

I’m in!

It’s been a bit of a battle.  I started back to university last January.  My most recent course (besides the trade courses – I am a journeyman in the steel trades) in university was more than 21 years old at that point….

Today, I sat down on the phone again and attempted to get my head around qualifications and restrictions, entrance requirements and allowable credit for past experience.  This stuff is much more difficult than the courses themselves!  In those courses I took 20+ years ago, were four English courses.  They no longer count towards anything.  Not a problem, I didn’t really expect them to.  But I did expect to be able to “re-take” them without too much difficulty.  Wow, was I wrong.

This morning, I was chatting with a friend who asked if I had actually “tried” registering for English for the September semester.  I heaved a great sigh and answered her, “no, I haven’t.”  She convinced me to try.  So, I did.  And, it worked!  They let me register for an English class for September!  I have absolutely no idea what changed between April and now that I can register now, but couldn’t then – but something did!  Which means I am doing a happy dance right now. 

ENGL 1100 is a pre-requisite for so many courses I would like to be able to take.  It is also a necessary part of graduating from almost any program offered at this school.  I am in!  I am happy!

Maybe I will be able to study and work on my rocks tonight….

A Post – slightly out of sequential order….

The following is the first little bit I wrote here, yesterday.  For some reason it shows as a comment without a post….

Okay, so I have figured out how to mess things around without even trying – now where are those silly, happy little emoticons when you need them?

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About me?

hmmm….

By Day: I run the front end of welding shop. I do my share of the shipping and receiving, sales and ordering, bookkeeping and sweeping.

By Night: I own a small e-shop call Cherry Blossom in Blue. It’s a place I have dreams about where sellers, consignors, and me, all get treated fairly by everyone else. It’s a place where memories are brought back to life….

….and in my dreams: I am a textile artist. I am going to start here with a couple of rocks I picked up on a walk tonight. I hope that you will follow me on my journey.

Leslie

ps:  I also went back to university.  I am in my second semester back right now.  Took two courses this time, both in the early evening.  Monday’s and Tuesday’s are fairly well dedicated to “going to school”.  The weekends have become filled with me going between studying and working on my site.  The rest of my free time?  Well, let’s see if I can figure out what I want to do with these rocks….  

The path by the slough

This morning I figured out how to add photographs here. (It is going to be a wonderful Monday!)

This is the path I chose for a walk yesterday, just before dusk. There was a surprise waiting for me at the end of the path.

At the end of the path, a big old pile of rocks!  I chose one, kind of flat and it looked like it would stand on one edge without any difficulty at all.  When I stepped away, there was a second rock that had a neat shape as well. So, they both came home with me.  Sparkly grey granite.    Okay, yes – I am needing a hobby!

Hmmm….  by the looks of what I just previewed this blog post to be, it looks like my hobby for today is going to be figuring out how to add and position photos correctly.  Please just smile – I’ll figure it out!  Leslie

Hello world!

Hi,

Well, I have a blog….  I’ve been thinking about rocks lately.  Yeah, I know, they are a strange thing to think about!  Especially when I have so many other more important things to think about.  But, maybe that’s why I’m thinking about rocks.

Anyways, tonight – I went for a walk and found two rocks.  Just pieces of rough granite.  Good “hand” sized pieces of granite!  It felt good walking beside the river holding on to them.  Yup – I’ve been working too hard and this is how it is showing!

My two rocks have now been washed and are drying beside the sink.  I like them.  I know what I am going to do with one of them!  I think I will start on my project tomorrow.