I am really getting close....

I am getting so close to being done with the Emerald Isle shawl. Truly!!!! only 10 more rows (5 of those being purled). I am so wanting to be done, and yet here I am on the computer... checking my friend's blogs, checking into Ravelry (like I need MORE ideas of stuff I want to do), and while doing this I am neither knitting nor doing any of the things around the house that are screaming to be done.

I am thinking that the computer is the very reason so many more people are getting back into the Gentle Arts. We have a collective desire to be more tactile and results focused. Think of all the people who, while they are willing to buy yarn off the internet, chances are they have already been somewhere that they were able to touch and feel and yes, in some cases 'smell' the yarn and decided that this is now their most favorite yarn. I love the fact that we want to be tactile. It is good for the soul and for our health. How many articles have you seen lateley about the health issues related to --- too much TV for kids and elders, not enough activity in our lives due to commuting and office jobs, and computers, - how dealing with living things helps us feel better?

I guess in a way, I think of the Gentle Arts (fiber work, cooking, baking, crafting) as dealing with living things. Most of these things either come from living things, or become living or life giving things.

Maybe going back to the "old" ways would not be so very bad. Our health would improve, our brains might not get mushy so early, and we would go back to being a production oriented people. Yes, our conviences are wonderful, but I often think that given the chance to take a vacation in one of those "Frontier House" experiments would not be ALL bad. Think of the activity, the need to be creative, and use you brain to make up for the things that you have to adjust to. No it would not be easy, and I am sure there would be days of sheer misery, but by the same token it might be life changing for the positive.

I shall get down quietly from my soap box, and go answer the incessant beeping of my washing machine that is done, and then empty the dishwasher, and then, just maybe sit my butt down and do some knitting today.