I love things that make sense of the messy world. Straight lines, clean edges, a box tied up tight with string. I love how a perfectly symmetrical sphere rests its cool weight in the warm palm of my hand. I love evenly tesselated pictures, geometric patterns that repeat their perfect predictability off the page and into unknown space. I love long complicated mathematical proofs that fill up pages of grid paper and emerge with an equation of pure simplicity.
I love rows and columns, lined up in order and never exceeding their borders. I love the tiny kernels of golden corn on the cob, arranged in perfection vertically and horizontally, each tiny cube pregnant with flavor. Anything arranged in boxes and borders with reasoning and logic is a relief to me.
That may be why I love knitting. I love the neat, even stitches created by two dull knitting needles as they click against each other in a predictable rhythm. It's expected and yet always a surprise when a new row emerges with color and structure in perfect accordance with what I had in mind. It is motion with purpose, motion that has an effect on the world. And it never needs be repeated -- it's not like doing the dishes, or changing the baby's diaper, or paying a bill, or watching tv, or listening to the radio. What's created has been created, and there is no arguing with reality resting in your hands.
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Simplicity, motion with a purpose, predictable rhythm, symmetrical. "What's created has been created, ... reality resting in your hands"
ReplyDeleteSounds a lot of what I like about throwing pottery. Now, if I can only figure out why I love working with software.