I regularly read Gretchen Rubin's blog. You can find her here http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/ She often writes about situations where opposites are true. She quotes Niels Bohr: “There are trivial truths and great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.”
"Familiarity breeds contempt" versus "absence makes the heart grow fonder" would be a good example of this type of oppositional truth.
I have recently noticed that as I get older I get both more and less patient with others. I'm completely patient with my Dad who suffers from Mixed Dementia but far less so with a divorcing colleague or friend that is behaving badly due to a falling out with a mutual friend. I've discovered that dealing with them all is equally exhausting. Yet I end up feeling virtuous after dealing with my Dad's repetitive questions and the fear that is created by his confusion. With the others I'm annoyed that I'm being drawn into their drama's and that they have a negative impact on my life that I don't want to let in.
What does all of this have to do with knitting you were about to ask??
Well it got me thinking about why I love some techniques and hate others for example Intarsia versus Fair Ilse or Mosaic stitch. I can create beautiful fabric in all three methods. It's all knitting which typically soothes me. I'm a technique junkie but once I'm working on a new design I sometimes use the techniques I already know well rather than swatching every potential technique. Yet I can happy swatch for hours learning new things if I'm not working on a specific project. I get impatient once there is a project in mind, but why? I also notice that so many Knitters hate to do their own finishing, yet they had the patience to knit for months on a project and are too impatient to spend a few hours weaving in ends and blocking so that they can enjoy the end result. Non- Knitters often cite their lack of patience as the reason that they don't knit so clearly the rest of the world sees Knitters as supremely patient.
What do you think, do you have any insights on this?
