Meditation

The semester is over -- and with it, I'm experiencing the usual mixture of exhaustion and helplessness.  The number of students at our universities who don't have a language map is truly appalling.  I just finished assigning grades (some of them very low, many of them accompanied by phrases like "Use complete sentences" or "Nouns and verbs have to agree," or "Don't just make lists" or "You need to run to the Learning Center and learn how to write an essay," or "Where are the readings?" or, worst of all, " I can't follow this at all") and I just don't know what will ever come of it.  I perhaps need a good, stiff scotch or some such libation.  Too bad I don't drink.  How can a civilization survive without language?  It really IS all that we have between us.  It's how we generate ideas, inventions, paradigm shifts, relationships, meanings -- on and on.  One young woman in the lower-division class, without the slightest hint of hostility, told me that my job (in her experience) ought to be simply to reward her for attending every day.  I'm sure that is what happened in high school.  I should add that this particular student came from a pretty-good suburban high school.  The best students in the class were four very hard-working African-American students in the front row.  They didn't get an A between them.  But learning occurred, lots of it.  And they went off to the writing center when I told them to do so -- no protests.  The protests come from the other students who think that university is a kind of holding action against change, an avenue to wealth without risking any part of what they are when they first walk in the door.  That's why some of them, the intractible ones, sit in the back row with arms crossed, or simply play with cell phones.

Now, some part could be me, of course.  I'm an old fart.  I think that university SHOULD be hard.  Nobody ever told me that it would be a piece of cake, that I'd always be happy, never be made unhappy with books and writing.  Something has changed, and I wonder now whether I should remain much longer.  I do NOT want to leave on a sour note.  I won every teaching award the university offers -- and -- what has it come to?  The salvation comes in upper division, by the way.  But it's SO damned sad.  The high schools should be shut down, retrained (without ticky-box tests), and reopened with teachers who are free to teach.

So I'm going to drive to the Shepherd's Harvest Festival in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, in two weeks -- instead of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival -- in part because I want to hug my neice and my oldest historical friend, Julie -- but also because the Minnesota festival has a larger number of vendors that I've not yet met.  It will be a necessary trip -- time to recharge batteries, to look at the gnarled, gorgeous landscape of once-glaciated Wisconsin, the sculpted St Croix River valley just as Wisconsin gives way to Minnesota, the glories of Grand Avenue in St Paul (the city of my birth -- a kind of nativity scene...) where the Bibelot Shop still exists, with its gathering of wonderful objects to touch and try on.  I'm fatter than I was when I was last there, so the try-ons will be fewer.  But -- down the street is the incredible Cafe Latte, and one of the best knit shops in the state.

Life does move on.  I will complete the book that's almost done -- the one people have been waiting for me to finish for a few years now -- and I will knit.  I have sweaters in my head.  I only hope that life will go on for those unfortunate, deprived, illiterate students.  There must be a terrifying stillness in their heads.  WIthout language, there can be only silence -- or perhaps its opposite, a kind of dissonant, inchoate noise signifying nothing.

svb

Candace's Departure

Well, she's gone.  I deposited the joy-imparting Candace Eisner-Strick at the Detroit Metro Airport a couple of hours ago -- and I miss her already.   More later when I can mount some photographs.   svb

Some Greencastle Lore, Part 3 of 3....!

...........and now for the promised endless parade of Indiana and Ohio-bred Angora bunnies.

.....Some people just can't stand the excitement.  For instance:

On the way home, we took smaller roads, notably Highway 12, which snakes through a large number of wonderful Indiana and Michigan wee towns.  I won't tell you about the ice cream.  I WILL tell you that we resisted stopping at the many dozens of antique shops along that road -- on the sensible ground that we would never be able to scrounge through all of their button and jewelry holdings in the few hours remaining.  So we stoically kept going, and will take a Wednesday sometime before summer is in full bloom to drive down that road in earnest.  It's in the smaller towns away from freeways that buttons are the most glorious and diverse -- and typically better prices (the tour buses don't stop there).  At least we now have an objective for a May or June day away from work.

Off to bed.  Go to a fiber festival sometime -- most especially, come to ours!  See our website for a link to the glorious Third Coast Fiber Arts Festival, to be held in September!!!!    svb

Some Greencastle Lore...., Part 2 of 3!

In Part I, only humans inhabited the earth.  But of course that's not true, is it?  The Greencastle, Indiana, festival was loaded with gorgeous animals -- cuter than usual, in fact.  One of them was (shall we say) STUFFED.  See if you can tell which alpacas and llamas are real (!!!).  Choice No. 1 is this curious fellow:

and then we have Choices No. 2  and 3 (there will be a quiz):

But they get a run for the money when the angora bunnies arrives.  Yes indeedy.  To touch one is to fall head over heels in love.  Endless pictures of bunnies.....I can't resist.  Go to the next entry.  The computer/web page are balking at the number of photos.    svb

Some Greencastle Lore... Part I of 3!

So Larry and I took off in the Chrysler 200 (rented) on Thursday night -- made it as far as Fort Wayne, Indiana, or thereabouts (actually Gas City, if you can imagine a town with a name like that!  Sounds like a very bad case of too many lentils...).  A good night's sleep, no cat to bounce on me at 5:00 AM, no work nagging at me, and so on.  The weather was kind of nasty -- particularly while driving.  Incessant, often heavy rain, slick asphalt pavement. 

The Fiber Event at Greencastle, Indiana, which I attend almost every year, was something of a puzzle at first blush.  We thought that the bad weather had emptied the place out.  Look at how empty the outside stalls were (that's Larry mugging for the camera) -- they are usually chock full of vendors.

...but then, inside the first big building (this is the Putnam County Fairgrounds), it was a different story. Lots of good people, particularly in the second building. Here's a general shot inside bldg. no.1.  You can click on pictures to enlarge, you know -- no need to go blind!:

Here's an uncommonly happy maker of beautiful rovings:

And here is my wondrous Kim Leach of Wisconsin (who has been ill, which is positively forbidden) with equally wondrous husband.  Kim owns Happy Hands Yarns, and HE does all the winding:

...some great buttons and other fasteners, and then some beautiful, glossy yarn bowls:

I'm going to save all of the living creatures for a second posting -- they're very, very special.  And I'll say some things about the return trip.

svb

Greencastle...

.....and, once this week's classes are over, the semester effectively ends for me -- and I'm off to the Greencastle, Indiana, fiber show, one of the earliest in the midwest and generally a productive, fun event.  Lots of friends to visit -- maybe some gorgeous one-of-a-kind wool to bring back.  It interests me how much more selective I'm being than I used to be -- has to do with the fact that Artisan Knitworks has so much beautiful stuff now that I worry about duplication.  Once upon a time, that wasn't a problem!  Anyway:  I will take pictures and make full report.  I do SO enjoy driving, and I'm so tired now that I really do need the revitalization that driving provides.    svb

VENDORS!

If you are one of the vendors from which Artisan Knitworks has been buying beautiful handspun or hand-dyed yarn, particularly our midwestern vendors -- or if you have supplied handcrafted buttons, etc. -- please get in touch with Larry Hart at  LarryHart2@comcast.net   or at 586-871-2884  to talk about signing on as a vendor for our fabulous First Annual Third Coast Fiber Arts Festival!   He can send you information by e-mail.  I assume (it's inevitable!) that our initial mailing, which went out yesterday, will miss a few of our friends, simply because we're dealing with SOOOO many bits of information.   svb