for long enough to go to the first meeting of our Handknitters' Guild. I am not sure why they call themselves a 'guild' because, to me, that suggests a professional or artisan group. This guild is neither. They meet about once a fortnight in an old hall in an adjacent suburb. I can pedal over there and back. If I could not I probably would not have bothered to go - except that it is network of sorts and networks are important.
I had not actually been to the group since October of last year. November was taken up with a craft fair and I did not manage to get to the December meeting because of a family commitment. Somehow I did not make the alternate fortnights. We do not meet in January because of the heat and holidays etc. So, it seemed a long time. I viewed the group with fresh eyes. I like most of the people who go but would count very few of them as friends. Those that I do count as friends went out of their way to say hello. Two of them gave me small and much belated birthday presents. I reciprocated with one of them.
I left with the ex-politician who belongs to the group and we discussed the situation in Haiti.
I mentioned the 100 stories for Haiti project I blogged about earlier and we both agreed that this sort of thing can only occur if there are networks. Her chief network, I suspect, is still her political party. Coming to the guild has been a new experience for her.
I came back to finish some work and clicked on the e-mail to send it off.
There were a little bundle of messages from the new 100 stories site
http://100storiesforhaitibookproject.ning.com/ and I realised that here is another new network. It took one person and an idea and now there is new network of people who did not know one another but have come together and will stay, at least for a while. They will reach out to their networks and those networks will reach out further still. Good networks are good to have.
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6 comments:
Oooh!
When was your birthday? Happy Birthday!
I hope you had a wonderful day.
:-)
Take care
x
It was actually at the very end of last year - which goes to show how much I have seen of my local friends lately! But - thankyou. It was pretty quiet - I am getting to be an ancient cat as regards birthdays!
I was thinking of a certain bird organisation.
But then I remembered they are called the GOULD league, after the founder.
Sometimes I think of networks as being like the bubbles on the surface of the dish water...some merge together to make bigger bubbles, some pop alsmost as soon as they appear, but some simply sit there intil they are popped or emptied down the plug hole...
Okay Rachel - now picture a bubble going down the plug hole and surviving and coming out somewhere and finding another bubble and joining it....
I would enjoy belonging to a knitting network! Once several friends from work came to my house for supper, and an evening of knitting or crochet by the fireside. It was so fun, we all swore we'd keep it up, but of course did not. Too busy, and all that.
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