Hello computer with high speed internet access! Hello TV with digital cable! Good to see ya radio! Its true that sometimes you don't appeciate what you've got until its gone. I spent the last 3 days of my vacation visiting our family matriarch, my Aunt Pat. Her house is an interesting place to visit. She loves art, plants, birds and books. She hates TV, computers, radio and most paper goods (thank God she's cool with toilet paper). Aunt Pat is the wise, thoughtful woman I aspired to be... until I realized that growing and canning your own food (http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_04/beans_snap_italian.html), reupholstering your own furniture and sewing your own clothes is a lot of damn work!
NOTHING goes to waste at her house. EVERYTHING can be repurposed. Old calendars become greeting cards for the sick and shut-in at her church (http://oberlin.edu/external/EOG/AfAmChurches/Rust.htm), used dryer sheets stuff pillows, scraps of cloth become fabulous quilts and banners. Her art and clothing designs are sought after
(http://www.ourownimage.com/?con=africanamericanquiltdesign. Family and friends fight over the soups, fruits, jams and veggies she cans each summer (in a home with no air conditioning). I don't know how she does it all. She flitters from project to project while people 10-to-50 years younger are begging her to just sit down. Aunt Pat is 86 and the rest of us just can't keep up. Plopping down in front of the TV is NOT an option. When you aren't working you are planning the next project or sharing ideas (no gossip allowed).
By day three I felt guilty using the paper towels my cousin Rose smuggled in. In Aunt Pat's honor, I might start using linen napkins at each meal.... but shunning TV, radio, computers AND driving?!?! I used to think I was the anti-tech... that is until I was without my favorite tech items. Now? I'm listening to the radio while I type and next I'll be shopping for a lap top to take on my next trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment