A change in my thinking...

Dear Cynthia,

Many years ago, I purchased a book called "The Tightwad Gazette", by Amy Dacyczyn. Few things I've read since then have changed my way of thinking about my responsibilities as much as one of the articles in that book did, so, even though it is after Thanksgiving, I'm going to share part of that article with you, because it is relevant at any time of the year.

And so, I share with you excerpts from "A Stolen Thanksgiving Soap Box Speech", taken from "The Tightwad Gazette"...

We have not all been born with the same gifts. A gift is anything that we have that we did not work for. People born to wealth have more advantages than those born in poverty. People with a high intelligence will probably fare better than those born with low intelligence...Most of us feel that being born in the United States is a gift...we are likely to have greater opportunities for education, health care, and employment than those living in Third World countries....Those of us who were raised in good families have a gift. Not everyone was raised with love, security, positive feedback, and values...."work ethic" is also a gift. Some parents taught it to their kids and some parents did not. The bottom line is to understand that what we have and who we are has a lot to do with factors we received in a package deal when we came into the world....The attitude of "I worked hard and I deserve..." does not consider the very large degree that our gifts contributed to what we have. By donating some of our surplus time, energy, and money we express thankfulness for the abundance of gifts with which we were born.

Anyway, I know I'm "preaching to the choir" with this post, because I've noticed that knitters in general seem to be of generous spirits to begin with. It's just something that I think about from time to time, because I really do feel quite blessed, and I remind myself that along with so many blessings I have a responsibility toward others who were born with fewer advantages. Anyway....sermon over...

I've been working on a sock. It's a very fun pattern, and is going rather quickly. It is the first time I've used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn (this is dk weight), and I'm really enjoying it!

Also, the boys and I worked on a gingerbread house today. They each wanted a different roof style, so we ended up making each side of the roof different. It wasn't too much later when they began asking if they could eat the leftover candies and lost interest in decorating the sides of the house.

Well, time to go read some more chapters in my Developmental Psych book. I'm working through the sections on Middle Adulthood, and I'm not sure I really want to learn all about how my body has been decaying since I was in my 20's and how it's going to be more and more noticeable in the coming years.

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)