Did you know a group of owls is a parliament? Also, this owl is both cute and a form of therapy, too.
Hi folks. Been quite some time since I posted! (2,664 days, as my profile unflinchingly reveals.)
I’ve been thinking a lot about how the internet has changed the way we move in this world. What we take for granted now would have been mind-bogglingly impossible a decade ago. Just take a moment and think back about twelve years.
I remember working during the 2004 Presidential election. Though furiously busy working to get John Kerry elected, many of us staffers breathlessly followed the emerging scandal of Washingtonienne. Now, we almost expect details of political sex scandals to be tweeted and posted within minutes of the story breaking.
Twelve years ago, blogging was truly disruptive, and could mess with my sense of time. We weren’t yet at the level of 24-hour news coverage as we’re at now, and yet I remember reading a paper copy of the Washington Post in a coffee shop and feeling a strange disconnection. The paper reported on things I had read about two or three days before on various blogs (here and elsewhere).
Howard Dean had permanently changed the fundraising world through The Bat (which, according to my friends in the know was originally a PDF that had to be manually uploaded.) Now, fundraising progress thermometers are automated (thank you, ActBlue!)
Twelve years later and I’m both amazed and let down by the promise that the Internet still holds for us in making the world a better place. But I tend towards optimism, most days.
So how does any of this have anything to do with a crocheted owl?
Here’s how: there’s one human experience that doesn’t change, and that’s losing people when they die. Social media hasn’t helped us with grieving — in some ways, it exacerbates it. Almost at exactly 10 years, some of my online friends and offline friends started to die, some of them very young and unexpectedly passing away. It threw me into a silent and very private depression.
So I started to look for a tangible thing I could do to deal with my grieving. I had to DO SOMETHING to get out of the fog and the profound sadness.
Stitching my way through grieving with these colorful friends.
I took up crochet, and started to make small animals. It was a way to keep busy, and maybe also bring joy into the world. I decided that, in my own way, I would honor my friends who had passed by making these small animals and give them to some young person. Even if unrelated to my friends that has passed, this seemed like a therapeutic thing to do, and a way to reconnect with people.
I’d post pictures of these new critters to social media, and friends would ask to buy the animals, or suggest I open an Etsy store, which in some ways was flattering. I didn’t quite know how to explain what was really driving the creation of these cuddly animals.
So we’re 50 days out (plus or minus) from the November election, and I’m thinking of the friends that I’ve lost — many of whom would be working on this election if they were still with us. I’m thinking of the enormous effort that we’re all putting it to getting good people elected into office. And despite the pretty horrible state of journalism these days (or the strange, algorithm-driven bubbles we create on social media) I still believe that there is a Progressive Movement that’s worth fighting for.
Because I care for this Movement — because the Movement and specifically, Netroots Nation, is where I’ve found my true, lifelong friends (including meeting my husband) — I’ve decided to do something I’ve never done before. I’ve donated the owl and a small bear to this year’s Netroots Nation Auction.
This bear needs a good home. Please consider bidding!
I have met such amazing people through Netroots and also through reading what incredible people on Daily Kos have written about. Proceeds from the auction go to support the annual Netroots Nation convention, happening in Atlanta, GA this year August 10-13.
Please take a moment and check out this cuddly pink bear I made that’s for auction, as well as a wise adorable owl.
Friendship takes the sting out of a world that can often suck. It’s the primary fuel that we run on — that campaigns and causes run on, too.
Please check out the Netroots Nation auction (lots of great stuff) and consider getting into a bidding war with someone over this cuddly pink bear or the wise adorable owl.
