What happened Monday and Tuesday?

I didn't have the best Monday, but it surely was not the worst either, so I will refrain from whining. Suffice to say it was a trial and did not have the chance to blog about it and so you've all been spared a diatribe.

Today however was a good day in spite of itself.

Art history was a good one, covering what has been deemed as being, handmade. We were asked to ponder upon, what we think this recent handmade development is about, the who, what, where and why of it all. Simple answer would be, who knows, but we all have our own conjectures.

I think there is a longing for a simpler time, one could say perhaps it is a nostalgia but I believe it is much more that this and perhaps difficult for me to articulate, but I will attempt to do so. My thought is there is an attempt to unravel the complexity of our fast paced lives, so that we slow down with a presence of mindfulness, that is a much healthier and holistic way of living as opposed to being cogs within the technological and corporate machine.

We live in a world the seems to live for instant gratification, were we are credit rich and cash poor. I don't want to go into a philosophical rant, as I am certainly not schooled in philosophy, but I am a person who works and creates with my hands which often involves hours of repetitive action, for no monetary reward but for internal rewards. The satisfaction I feel of spending time and attention to detail as well as the meditative state that results, perhaps is only appreciated and understood by those of us involved in creative process.

The power of the individual is always being undermined and thwarted in today's society. The individually handmade, champions, respects, empowers the individual if it is made under circumstances that also support these values. This process is not about the thing in and of itself. It is about the person and the creative process, about the relationship to self, to others and ultimately to a higher good.

I think the late Dr Martin Luther King clarifies the bigger picture of what is the root concern of the so called, " Handmade Nation.".

"We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered. A nation can flounder as readily in the face of moral and spiritual bankruptcy as it can through financial bankruptcy."

Dr. Martin Luther King, April, 1967

I found a compelling blog belonging to Faythe Levine that is all about the handmade.

Well I'm off to couch surf!