May 24, 2005

• Here is the grunge sock with a hole in it. A hole and a bit of a run. Right at the toe. I could embrace its grunge nature, following the destroyed jeans look with a destroyed sock look. I could throw it away and knit another. But there is a third option.

  
  

  Just frog the sock to the beginning of the run and put it right back on the needles. Now it is simple to knit a new toe. Another advantage of hand-knitted socks.

  
  

  Beyond Civilization has (after misquoting Marx — you know, it is so easy these days to check quotations that there is really no excuse for misquoting) settled down to cases. This is what I have been wanting it to do, I guess, but the truth is that now it is boring. Quinn says that neo-tribalism consists of working together with others to make a living at something you enjoy, instead of working merely for a paycheck and an unsatisfying quest for more and ever more stuff. Well, yes, we know that, don’t we?

  
  

  Actually, lots of people don’t know that. And Quinn’s version of this message, in contrast to most versions of this message that are out there, embraces homeless scavengers and slackers as well as artisans and entrepreneurs. He seems to have dropped the hunter-gatherer ethos entirely. Well, it wasn’t making sense, was it? But I was enjoying it, and looking forward to the point at which he recommended living on wild berries (not very tasty, really) and squirrels.

  
  

  He is emphasizing, in this section, that there is no one right way to live, and indeed that diversity of lifestyle is as essential for the human bits of the ecosystem as biodiversity is for the ecosystem as a whole.

  
  

  Have you heard about the crocheted hyperbolic planes at the Smithsonian? #2 son pointed them out to me in Wired magazine. I like the resourcefulness of using crochet to make math concrete (using quilts in math lessons is fairly common, but this is the first time I’ve seen crochet used for this purpose).

  
  

  Indeed, resourcefulness is the theme that links the bits of this post together (to the extent that they are linked). I wish you a resourceful day, and leave you with a gratuitous garden picture. Azalea, boxwood, and sweet woodruff, with a bit of phlox in the corner. In case you were wondering. I know I always do.

  • 6:54 am
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