quiltersmuse.com Blog

We all listen to advice via sound bites and maxims, and I am no different than the rest of the world. A while ago, the favorite saying of the day is that “Life is not a dress rehearsal.” In other words, life and our actions today are the only chance we have to “get it right.” We cannot back up the tapes of what we do, and re-shoot them in real life. However, “bad” tapes can replay themselves in our heads, for years.

Some of us follow other people whom we consider to be role models. In so doing, we can become very disenchanted and discouraged, when they let us down. Think of all the young people who idolize pop stars and music video stars, only to find them to drink irresponsibly or be morally corrupt. Think of adults who put their trust in government leaders and may even wish that they, too, could serve in that capacity. Then it is observed that some legislator is doing something terribly unethical or just plain wrong. The public balks at the bad news. Remember this: Tomorrow, any bad news will just be accepted and swept under the rug, as if an event had never happened.

As a society, we seem to be suffering from collective memory loss because we tend to engage in the same lack of judgment, again and again. When I see grown men in camouflage attire, running around in a foreign country, with an imbedded reporter, and one of the men gets hit by mortar or gun fire, it is not surprising that it is immediately confirmed that the soldier will not be coming home, at least not alive. These men are not “playing war” for a TV special, rather, they are living a daily nightmare that their number will be up next, not to step up to the luncheon meat counter at the store, but to meet St. Peter. Let’s hope they pass through the Pearly Gates with ease.

On a daily basis, we all make mistakes. If you keep forgetting to kiss your wife goodbye, a word to the wise, don’t. If you have not locked up your firearms yet, to keep them safe from youngsters, take care of the situation. Don’t take anyone else for granted. It’s not that they might die, it is that they will die, and so will you. It’s all a matter of timing.

The importance of life in all of its forms is often, for me, a poignant consideration, as it would be for anyone who stops to think about it, and particularly anyone who has a life-threatening condition.

So, if life is not a dress rehearsal, it means that we have to maximize our chances of taking the right course of action for ourselves, today. If you have been postponing a hard decision, make it. If you love people in your life, but never see them, make the effort. We will never walk down this road again, in the same way. Think of today as special because every today is a building block for tomorrow. Play for keeps.

Patricia Cummings

The rule of “status quo” is that there is no room for movement, growth, or change. The dictators of status quo would like everything to remain the same, with the same old rhetoric, the same old leaders (or those who agree with them), the same way of doing things.

Look to your own organizations. The leader of a group may be the best person for the job, and he/she remains in that post, sometimes until death. As a free society, we know that there are many groups and associations, most of them with a head honcho, grand “Poohbah,” or “great, white leader,” in an historical manner of speaking.

In societies, people are judged by their lineage, by the amount of money they have earned or inherited, and by the influence of their “clan.” In this age, we could construe the word “clan” to mean “extended family” that has been acquired because people substitute acquaintances for real family that has been “lost” in moves to distant states where money-making opportunities reside.

A lot of people might feel stuck in society’s overall view of who they are perceived to be. Education has always been a possibility for a step up the ladder. Historically, and I will use Spain as an example, one way to get ahead was to either become a priest, or join the military. And, the tradition of the latter has continued, there and here.

Young men are attracted to the military for many reasons. Some may join so that they can more easily get the training they need for the jobs they wish to hold, later in life, if they survive their tour(s) of duty. The military seems to be personally helpful to formerly undisciplined youth who never made a bed at home, but now MUST do so (at “work”). The military guarantees a paycheck, and work, unless someone makes some horrible mistake, is wounded, or fatally injured.

Where am I going with these thoughts? Well, let me back up a bit and mention a PBS special program called “Secrets of the Dead,” that I viewed last night. The show was about the fight by “the powers that be” to restrict the common man’s access to a version of the Bible in English, which was first written in Greek. The hour long show included a segment in which a dissenter and promoter of the English Bible was killed, but later exhumed, so that his body could be burned and his ashes spread in a non-Christian burial ground.

What is that all about, you say? Why would anyone do that? Seems radical. “The powers that be” had to make a further example of the man in hopes of dissuading anyone else from doing the things he had done, in life, that were considered to be so wrong. Power is at the root of the action.

Money, greed, and dominance equal power. The debates about power, and the misuse of it, probably reach back to a time we can only imagine: pre-recorded history. The debates and the struggles of man are often unchanged from century to century: the rights of self-governance, the right to make war, and what sacrifices will be required before we can make peace.

Yet, in our hearts, we all long for peace … except for the annoying neighbor, except for the co-worker who pulls our chain, except for the rest of our “enemies.” No, we speak of peace, but our tongues are swords, ready to go into action at the slightest hint of trespass of what we believe should be the maintained status quo. In other words, people are fine, as long as others go along with our set program, or follow (us) along like sheep going into the slaughter.

There may come a time of peace in the future. That may be when a nuclear holocaust has arrived, the war engine turbines have been silenced, and only ants continue to walk the earth. In the meantime, we live with our own delusions that everything is ok and will be ok. With any luck, we will continue to make some beautiful quilts to comfort our bodies and our souls, practically and visually, while we wait for the Generals and soldiers alike to put down their armaments that maim and kill living things.

Peacefully piece.

Pat