Over the past few days I have had a great deal of time to knit. (This is a good thing since it is about time for the next issue of Spirit of Knitting to be published and I was working on designs for the issue.) Much of the time I spent knitting was while sitting at our booth at the DFW Fiberfest. I worked a little and I knit a lot. Also recently we have begun knitting with a group at our local library. The group officially meets once a month but we all know that is not frequent enough for knitters, especially new ones who are still unsure about what they are doing and how to fix their own sure-to-happen mistakes. So, we have been meeting unofficially once a week at a local cafe and bakery. Knitting, coffee, friends, and chocolate croissants-life doesn't get much better than that!
Most weeks, we sit and knit together for two or three hours. I justify this as working in a remote office. I need to be knitting (it is part of my job, right?) and it really doesn't matter where that happens. Never mind the fact that I could do a few loads of laundry between rows or I could eat apples and grapes instead of chocolate croissants if I were at home. The truth is, I am working. Inevitably, every time we meet at the cafe, someone will stop at our table and say something to the effect of that looks like fun. I wish I had the time to just sit around and knit. Obviously they fail to see that this really is work. Okay, I'll admit that it is not well-paying work, but hey, does that really matter?
I began thinking about all those people who wish that they HAD the time to just sit around and knit. Last time I checked, we all have the same 24 hours in our days. Sometimes the days feel much longer and sometimes much shorter, but I do know that they all have 24 hours, no more and no less. (I know there are some extra seconds floating around out there) What do these people who wish they had time to knit do with their days? Shop? Watch TV? Sleep? Party? Read? Obviously they make time to eat since they spoke to us at an eating establishment. Perhaps if they cut one of the above out of their schedule, they could carve out some time to knit, that is if they really want to.
The deal is, we all make time for the things we WANT to do. So, if you really want to knit, you will knit. If you really want to read a book, you will rad a book. If you really want to do your laundry, you will do your laundry. If you really don't want to go commando, you will do your laundry. Though following our bliss is not possible all the time, we all have a desire for self preservation and doing those things that make us happy fall into the realm of self preservation.
I am just as guilty as the folks at the bakery of playing the "no time" card. With me, it comes with watching TV. I have caught myself saying that I wish I had time to just sit down and watch TV. In reality, I really don't wish for that. If it were that important to me, I would just sit down and do it. As it is, I don't. I will admit to being a bit culturally illiterate because of my choice not to do so. I don't even know who is on Dancing With the Stars, let alone who is winning. I have no idea who's married, who's divorced, or who's dead on ER. I am even woefully uninformed about what is happening on American Idol. I have chosen this state of ignorance for myself. I could watch TV instead of knitting, or I could watch TV instead of writing about wishing I could watch TV. But, I'm not.
I will trust that I can find someone who wishes they were knitting but is watching TV instead to tell me what is happening on primetime TV and I will continue to waste time knitting away. I may never know who wins this year's American Idol, but I will have lots of awesome hand-knit socks.
The next time you catch yourself saying, "I wish I had time to . . .", think about what you are saying. Do you really wish for the time to do that thing? If so, why aren't you doing it? If you are sincere in your desire, what can you do to allow yourself the necessary time? What are you doing that really is a waste of your time?
Does anyone know what is happening on Grey's Anatomy?i
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Daytime TV
Because it is summertime and we are afforded the luxury of a little down time, I must admit to watching more TV during the daytime than usual. Mind you I said TV during the day, not daytime TV. Daytime TV is usually considered to be soap operas, game shows, and sleazy talk shows. These are not what we have been watching. The TV is most often tuned to the Food Network, HGTV, CNN, or whatever channel is showing reruns of Law and Order or CSI.
This afternoon Brooke happened to be watching reruns of a show from the 2002-2003 TV season called John Doe on the Sci-Fi Network. Having never seen this show before and having not been paying close attention today, the best synopsis of it that I can give is this: A man found himself in Seattle not knowing who he was but knowing almost everything else. As he sought to uncover the mysteries of his own existence, he also helped the Seattle Police Department solve cases as well. (My apologies to any of you that are fans of this series. I am sure that there is more to it than this)
The episode that was on today was about a 10 year old boy genius who was conceived by artificial insemination after his mother visited a sperm bank. Somehow (I was not paying attention at the outset of the show), this little boy believed John Doe to be his father. One of the things that was integral to determining the boy's father was the intellect that they shared. A series of questions was asked of John Doe to prove exceptional intelligence as well as his knowledge of almost everything.
He was asked if he knew the derivation of the word "nerd". Because the word nerd is as common a word as food and toilet paper at our house, my attention was suddenly drawn to the TV. John Doe responded that the word nerd was first used by Dr. Seuss in 1950 in a line from his book If I Ran The Zoo. I was quite surprised by this.
I am a huge fan of Dr. Seuss. Like most children of my generation, I learned to read with the Cat in the Hat and Sam I Am. Back then, I was familiar with the characters and I had a grasp of the silliness illuminated in the literal stories. A few years ago, I was again drawn to Dr. Seuss. Right now, I can't even remember why. The result was that BK and I wrote and taught an adult Sunday school series on the Spirituality of Dr. Seuss. I suddenly met these characters and stories on a totally different level. Theodore Geisel was a story teller with an imagination beyond compare. I could go on and on about this man and his work, but that would be a huge digression from this post.
Back to the word nerd. I went to my Seuss collection to verify Seuss' use of this word because I could not remeber it in If I Ran The Zoo. There it was in the line, "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo, and bring back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, a Nerkle, a Nerd and a Seersucker, too." Cool! Then I went to the Internet to see if this was indeed the first use of this word in print. Most sources that I found agreed that it was.
Another theory is that the word nerd originated with the word drunk spelled backwards. There was not as much evidence to support this possibility. It was not until the 70's that the word nerd became accepted as part of the English language. Back then, the term was generally applied to a person who was socially inept. Overtime it has evolved to mean a person who interested more in intellect and academics than in the social aspects of life. The latter is certainly how we have come to use it at our house - a place that is proud to call itself home of the nerds.
I am not going to go as far as to advocate more watching of TV during the daytime, but I was pleasantly surprised by the piece of trivia that today's viewing brought.
Power To Nerds!
This afternoon Brooke happened to be watching reruns of a show from the 2002-2003 TV season called John Doe on the Sci-Fi Network. Having never seen this show before and having not been paying close attention today, the best synopsis of it that I can give is this: A man found himself in Seattle not knowing who he was but knowing almost everything else. As he sought to uncover the mysteries of his own existence, he also helped the Seattle Police Department solve cases as well. (My apologies to any of you that are fans of this series. I am sure that there is more to it than this)
The episode that was on today was about a 10 year old boy genius who was conceived by artificial insemination after his mother visited a sperm bank. Somehow (I was not paying attention at the outset of the show), this little boy believed John Doe to be his father. One of the things that was integral to determining the boy's father was the intellect that they shared. A series of questions was asked of John Doe to prove exceptional intelligence as well as his knowledge of almost everything.
He was asked if he knew the derivation of the word "nerd". Because the word nerd is as common a word as food and toilet paper at our house, my attention was suddenly drawn to the TV. John Doe responded that the word nerd was first used by Dr. Seuss in 1950 in a line from his book If I Ran The Zoo. I was quite surprised by this.
I am a huge fan of Dr. Seuss. Like most children of my generation, I learned to read with the Cat in the Hat and Sam I Am. Back then, I was familiar with the characters and I had a grasp of the silliness illuminated in the literal stories. A few years ago, I was again drawn to Dr. Seuss. Right now, I can't even remember why. The result was that BK and I wrote and taught an adult Sunday school series on the Spirituality of Dr. Seuss. I suddenly met these characters and stories on a totally different level. Theodore Geisel was a story teller with an imagination beyond compare. I could go on and on about this man and his work, but that would be a huge digression from this post.
Back to the word nerd. I went to my Seuss collection to verify Seuss' use of this word because I could not remeber it in If I Ran The Zoo. There it was in the line, "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo, and bring back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, a Nerkle, a Nerd and a Seersucker, too." Cool! Then I went to the Internet to see if this was indeed the first use of this word in print. Most sources that I found agreed that it was.
Another theory is that the word nerd originated with the word drunk spelled backwards. There was not as much evidence to support this possibility. It was not until the 70's that the word nerd became accepted as part of the English language. Back then, the term was generally applied to a person who was socially inept. Overtime it has evolved to mean a person who interested more in intellect and academics than in the social aspects of life. The latter is certainly how we have come to use it at our house - a place that is proud to call itself home of the nerds.
I am not going to go as far as to advocate more watching of TV during the daytime, but I was pleasantly surprised by the piece of trivia that today's viewing brought.
Power To Nerds!
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