A lot of life is going on these days, and it leaves little time to ponder what would be worth writing about. Only little time for stitching as such, anyway.
And then so many things happening that bother me. I received my second dose of vaccine on Friday, which in itself is a very good thing and I am immensely grateful for, despite all the vagaries about the vaccines as such, the mode of distribution in Germany / Europe / less developed countries, how the pharmaceutic corporations are using it to manifest and milk their power, and instances of corruption in politicians connected with face masks blablabla.
I had received the shot around 2 p.m., my arm started hurting later that afternoon, getting bad and worse, and then I went to sleep at 8 p.m. And slept. and slept. and slept. Except for two minor trips to the lavatory, a drink of water and a few words with my husband I was not able to do anything on Saturday, I slept and slept and slept. Until way into Sunday morning. By Sunday noon I was pretty much my old self again, if a bit slowed down still. But I did feel somewhat like a Rippa van Winkle, especially when looking through the paper, which, at that point was only yesterday’s paper, but sported news that seemed to tell me that the world was really crumbling in its mindset, as if my sleep interval had made my perception to it all even more acute.
Or has the
virus dug deeper into all our brains and is by now really getting to our core?
Life seems to be getting stranger and stranger, and some things I see hurt me
more and more. One example: the current head of the grouping calling itself the
Christian Democratic Values Union, a rather right-oriented section within the
Christian Democratic Party (definitely not a party on the liberal spectrum of
the political scene – they are conservative! they promote conservative values!)
announced he would not be available for another term when a new head would be
elected within a couple of months, because of the “dangerously left-oriented
turn that Christian Democratic Policies have taken”. Excuse me? I have a very
hard time understanding where left-orientation can be found or even suspected
in Merkel’s or anybody from the CDU’s ranks politics. It felt like being in the
wrong film. That’s when I first thought about how Rip van Winkle must have
felt. And I had only been gone for a day. Made me wonder, too, how people who
are recovering from a coma, or whatever kind of longish sedation, feel like,
when they are returning back to real life. And then I began thinking about Sleeping
Beauty and the depiction of her waking up after her hundred years of sleep.
Being ‘kissed awake’, and simply as that she is whisked off by the prince, I
mean, did he ask her whether that was what she wanted? But to be honest – I did
not follow this thought through. I had applied for a job at the University of
the Arts in Berlin earlier this year, as the HR person for Equal Opportunities,
and while simply the process off applying, imagining myself back in an academic
environment, how it would be and what it would mean to me living in a city like
Berlin did me very good, the fact that I wasn’t even invited for an interview really
pissed me off. However, I don’t approve of the way political movements are now
trying to interfere with spelling ‘regulations’ that are supposed to show a
more inclusive attitude towards underprivileged sections of society. I don’t
think it will work through political pressure, these regulations will only
split society even further – so in the end I am a bit relieved that I did not
get that job and would have had to be at the forefront of this issue. Where my
stand probably wouldn’t have been received well.
I am rambling on, mostly because I don’t have a lot to show. I did start a sunflower field and a tomato farm, though!
But there is something interesting going on. For almost two weeks now I have been posting design options for the Burgoyne Surrounded block on the Patchwork Gilde Deutschland’s website, members area. Which is turning into an adventure in designing for me. I am slowly learning tricks and options of EQ8 that way and have come up with some really fun layouts.
Here are a few recent highlights from the last two posts.
As I am not
exactly sure whether this activity is actually finding any response within the
Guild’s community (nobody except the web editor has left a comment in the
comment area yet). It has received some nice comments on Instagram when I post
on my personal account, whereas the members forum is open only to members, so I
have decided to take at least some of the most exciting designs (in my opinion)
that I come up with to a wider public. Be prepared to see a few more of these
here during the month of April. One thing I will try to do is to improve the quality of the pictures, perhaps saving them in a different size will also make them a bit more catchy.