Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Snow, Knitting, and Toupie


Between the southerly dips of Arctic air and the march of Nor’easters, this winter is leaving us buffeted between waves of frigid temperatures and snow and freezing rain. Phil’s prediction was surplus to requirements: We didn’t need a extricated rodent to tell us that we were in for another six weeks of winter. 

Acclimatization comes surprisingly quickly. People were walking around in light jackets and sweaters the day after last week’s big snow. Temperatures were in the mid-thirties. Indeed, at the bus stop on Friday morning, I thought I could have worn my fingerless gloves and been quite comfortable.

It is perfect weather for knitted goods. My Nomads Hat keeps my head quite toasty. Scrolling through saved patterns, I found the Simpliworsted Gansey Mittens & Neck Warmer by Geoff Hunnicutt for Skacel. I used Cascade Eco+ in Lavendar Heather colorway on size 8 dpns to create a very tight fabric. This was a quick knit. Next time I knit this pattern, I will make the cuffs longer.

  



 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I managed to capture post breakfast photos of Toupie this morning. He demolished a can of food formulated for indoor cats overnight, so I expected he wouldn’t have been as hungry this morning. Wrong! He settled down to the bowl and finished half of the this morning’s can. After mounting the bookcase for a session of face washing, the food coma set in:
That is until he discovered he was being photographed:


I listened to Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thurbon. If I had unlimited resources and unlimited time, this is the journey I would take. It is rather dispiriting to think that war and political unrest makes such trip almost impossible these days, but on the other hand, hasn’t it always been so. What makes the Silk Road so intriguing is its endurance despite the constant transformations from migrations, ecological changes, war, the rise and fall of polities. Travelogues are not something I find enjoyable, but as always, it is the writing that draws one in. Here the Shadow of the Silk Road succeeds. 

I also finished listening to The Jewel in the Crown, the first book of the Raj Quartet by Paul Scott. I had read the quartet in the 80’s and 90’s. It struck me on listening how such disparate characters are clearly drawn and through the narration of these characters; the plot is moved forward despite the fractured narration. What particularly impressed me was how well he captured how much of the Indian’s time, thought, and effort was spent in dissecting, analyzing and developing strategies to deal with the British. Not just in the political arena, but in negotiating the minutiae of everyday life. I understood the criticism of a younger Indian relayed by one of the narrators that too much time and effort was spent by Congresswallahs under the Raj on politics when that time and effort should have been spent on learning how things worked or on building the practical competencies to run the economic and social engines of the nation that emerged after independence. In short, those in the independence movement let the British determine how power would be negotiated when real power is self-sufficiency and that means having the local/indigenous competency to manage the social and economic infrastructure.  

This resonated with me because I see as a lesson to be learned for all peoples who lack access to institutional or political power. That the primary focus is on gaining access to political power is on that power—elections, policies, etc., not on developing competency that puts people in the position to be the locomotives of implementation. Once the political access is gained, the engines underlying infrastructure--that is the real bulwark of power—never changes or changes much more slowly because the focus on competency comes after the focus on political power.

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