A Public-Sphere Awareness Site
Dear Habermas
Dear Habermas Sites:
University of Wisconsin, Parkside (UWP)
California State University, Dominguez Hills(CSUDH)
Created: July 10, 2011
Latest update: July 10, 2011
E-Mail to Jeanne in L.A.
E-Mail to Susan at UWP.
News of the Week
Susan's Sometime Scarf
Now, this is embarrassing. I'm supposed to know better. It was just a tiny summer scarflike necklace with a bright summer flower to close it. It was so pretty in this lovely soft white organic cotton I had from Knitpicks. They introduced it just last summer, so I didn't even think to worry that they might not have it anymore.
We called it Susan's Sometime Scarf because I keep experimenting to find patterns that will be fun for our Public-Sphere Awareness Projects that we can give away free. Nothing is free today. When I was in college there was no big deal. The knit stores helped us find patterns and yarn, and they helped us all the way through. No one charged us. They just helped us with our yarn. And as college students we didn't knit with designer spangled yarns. Today, everybody charges huge sums for classes.
Vogue Knitting just sent me a brochure inviting me to attend a three-day Conference and sales event. The Gala dinner would cost $150, I think it was. You could take some classes. And you could shop! A package to shop and take 3 classes a day, as I recall, and the dinner I guess, was over $600, but Vogue assured me it was worth almost a thousand. Jumping Jehosaphat! I thought we were in the midst of a major financial crisis. Susan and I want you to learn to do all the things we got to do as young folks. But not at such prices. We'll teach you and help you find family, neighbors, friends who will share their skills with you. I've been working for two years to come up with patterns that we can give you free.
What if you go out and take classes like that and find out that you don't like to knit, or crochet, or paint, or whatever. Oh, well, my husband would say. Go to the craft store. Have you gone shopping in a craft store lately and priced the supplies for scrap-booking? Holy Toledo and Jumping Jehosaphat! I love some of Martha Stewart's recipes and ideas. But not at those prices. Maybe you can't draw. But somewhere you've got a neighbor who can. Did we fail completely as teachers to teach you to help each other out? to share your skills? to care about each other? Especially now that families are spread all over the place, and we can no longer fly whenver we wish, if we ever could.
Susan's Sometime Scarf is one of those free patterns. That's why we called it Sometime - I was working on it - and she'd get it sometime, but we were never sure how long it would take. It took me a while to figure out how to do it. But now I can show you. And you can go to Michael's or JoAnne's or any other craft store and pick up some inexpensive yarn to play with. And before long we'll have a knitting group, or you can start one of your own with our help.
If you'll do things that others can help you with, and share with you, then you can try lots of things until you find what you like. These days, for the whole middle class, that's a good thing. Try. Learn. Find what you like. What you enjoy enough to learn to do it very well. Then you can take classes, and buy expensive materials. And sharing what you can with your neighbors and friends will strengthen your community and all the relationships in it. That's better for all of us.
References:
In Reply to: Re: Holy Toledo posted by Barney on July 20, 2000 : : Does anyone know where the phrase "Holy Toledo" came from? : Don't know if it's relevant but Toledo steel was used in medieval swords - renowned for it's quality - which may have been used in wars against the Infidels. "holy Toledo! - This exclamation of surprise refers to Toledo, Spain, which became one of the great centers of Christian culture after its liberation from the Moors in 1085. Its thirteenth-century Gothic cathedral, one of the largest in Europe, is the seat of the Cardinal Archbishop of Spain." "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins" by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988).
Jeanne's Cats
Jeanne is spending so much time with her cats . . . Just like Mrs. Snew.
Why, she's turning into one.
Go ahead. Take a minute. Go see what happened to Mrs. Snew .
There's no excuse for this being up today, except that I wanted to play with it, and Hal the computer, was willing to let me play with Paint.
This drawing is new, in that the story hasn't been told on site before, and jeanne really does seem to be turning into a cat. But we'll send you off with just a few hints to read the story elsewhere. The sweet pumpkin and white cat to jeanne's right is Sugar Puss, smartest cat I've ever met in terms of relational learning. He was a rescue cat from Molly's Mutts and Meows. Very jumpy, much difficulty believing that his world was safe and secure now. Jeanne and Arnold (jeanne's husband) learned quickly never to say "no" to him. He cowered if he thought he had done anything wrong. Until I brought home the little black cat (to my left, just above the word CAT).
He was an urban wild cat. His mother was one of many who roamed his neighborhood. They lived behind a wonderful elderly lady's house. She had seven or eight house cats, perched all about as she sat enjoying her television. But this little fellow lived on a screened back porch where his mother and others like her came and went freely and kept the rat population under control. The nice lady saw that the litter of 3 kittens and their mother were warm and fed, and she was saving the kittens for her son who had moved to Oregon.
One of her church friends, Marilyn, knew that I had been searching for a kitten to play with Sugar Puss, who was making do with imaginary friends. Yes, he really does have imaginary friends. He's a very special cat. Marilyn convinced the lady to let me have one of the kittens for Sugar Puss. The night I brought him home he howled the whole night long. he was the first of the three to be taken from his mother and the litter. Sugar Puss, the timid one, disappeared, as I cuddled the tiny little guy.
Within a couple of days, Sugar Puss returned to our bedroom, and watched the little one. He didn't go near. He just sat and watched. Very much like St.Exupery's Little Prince demanded. One must approach the Other slowly, watching and listening so that he can imagine what the Other is feeling and likely to answer, if one isn't careful enough to be gentle. The little wild cat stayed in our bedroom, not wishing to venture out into our big old house. And Sugar Puss kept him company. Soon he began to bathe the baby; and the baby cuddled with him happily. The baby didn't come downstairs for a couple of weeks.
Sugar Puss watched over him tirelessly and led him out into our patio for the first time. We named the baby Sugar Plum, but we know he'll always be "baby." Today, the two male cats are as close as if they had been in the same litter. They have climbing castles, a room they consider their own, and are known to everyone in the neighborhood. There is something very special about rescue animals; something very special about seeing them content and knowing they are "forever cats."
The rest of the story of this picture isn't up yet. I've only got one day at a time to write. But it's coming. There are two other really big guys in the picture. They're mine, too; the jaguars. Just like the unicorns that Leo Buscaglia loved so. Just like those imaginary friends of Sugar Puss. But those are tales I must tell you another day.
Till then, love and peace, jeanne
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DEAR HABERMAS by Jeanne Curran and Susan Takata is licensed under a
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