I wish that all children had an opportunity to learn some form of music. It is so good for the soul and I honestly believe it helps them to be able to learn other things as well more easily. If every child in every culture, every nation, had music from such an early age, do you think we might have a more peaceful world?
Category: Works
The Life of a Pencil
Photo courtesy Pexels.
I learned this little really interesting lesson many years ago from my amazing friend, Spencer Heath MacCallum.
Every time you purchase a pencil, do you know how many people you are employing? Start with the wood of the pencil. There have to be loggers who cut the wood, and then truckers who haul it to some factory. Then there are the factory workers who form the wood for the pencil into its familiar shape.
Then there are those who paint the outsides of the pencils, and those who imprint it with the type of lead (the size, and perhaps the brand name, etc.). Then there is the little metal piece that holds the rubber eraser. OK, it is some kind of metal that (likely tin) that has to be mined and then processed, perhaps through many processes to make that holder. Then it too goes via trucks or perhaps trains to a factory where it is shaped and formed into the piece that will hold the eraser onto the pencil. And then there is the machinery that performs all those magical tasks, and the people who run those machines. And of course there is the rubber.
It is growing in the forests in some country where it then is gathered as a liquid, and again, it is processed, and then dyed, as I think rubber in its natural state would not be pink (or other contemporary eraser colors), and it is formed and shaped into those little erasers. Then there is the lead, and again, lead must be mined, carried to trucks or trains (as are all of these parts) where it is then taken to be processed for formed into the lead that becomes the innermost part of the pencil.
And then all of this must be assembled. Now a great part of the process might be to do these things automatically via machines, but then someone had to make the machines, and someone had to maintain them, and someone else has to run them. And of course there are the quality control people. And then the packaging people. And then the people who take the orders and know where the pencils will go. And then the pencils are loaded onto trucks and delivered to the places. Of course, people have to build these trucks and they have to be maintained, and they have to have gas and oil.
Once delivered, the stocking people have to note them into the inventory, and then they get put onto the shelves, where the sales people might just help you to find them, and even if not, you will take them to the cash register to pay for them, so this is the end step that I can think of in the life of the pencil.
Doesn’t this make you feel good to know how many people you are helping to keep employed every time you buy that simple little pencil? All of this for less than $1.00.
Artful Alchemy: Physically Challenged Fiber Artists Creating
My friend, Barbara Williamson and I worked hard to get this book published. It is the culmination of our 10+ years together running a very small, but very successful nonprofit organization called Fiberarts Connection of Southern California. We assisted physically challenged fiber artists with getting exposure for their work, and also helped those who needed it with professional development. A lot of folks don’t realize that when you have a severe physical challenge, you might not be able to get out and about. Even if you have transportation, many facilities and open public areas are not equipped for wheelchairs, and just getting transportation from public sources can be a huge undertaking. Sometimes when you get where you are going, you don’t get the service you really need either. So we tried very hard to cut through some of that as well as creating good exhibits for the artists and for practically free.
Barbara has been a wonderful and inspirational fiber artist, producing some award-winning quilts, being the featured artist in an international exhibit, and having articles written about her. She has long had her own fiber arts business selling her work, and her blog is http://www.threadscapestudio.blogspot.com. And she served as volunteer Secretary for our tiny nonprofit while her caregiver served as our Treasurer. We never has any money but despite that we still managed to get everything we needed done. Enjoy!
The book is available from AmazonKDP.com. Thank you very kindly. We hope that you will read the story of these 23 amazing fiber artists and see their beautiful work. A lot of them are internationally renown for their unique work.
Source
Photo courtesy of Pexels.
I thought Source was a God.
A God who was Perfect.
A God who could do no wrong
A god pure and dressed in white
Floating somewhere above the world
Above the universe.
But the Bible says
God created us in his image.
And so I thought about that.
There are people of every color
Every culture
Every belief system
And there are all kinds of strange things and strange people
That got put together on this earth.
And what does that say about this image?
Who is this God – this energy – this creator – this source?
Maybe he, she, or it
Is creative in the wildest sense of the word.
Maybe this source has a sense of humor.
Maybe Source is capricious and doesn’t stop to think
About whether anything matches, or whether it fits
Or whether it will even work
Or whether it will be destructive.
Maybe everything really belongs.
And it is our consciousness
That is a mistake.
-Anne Copeland
All in a Day's Breath 
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