Home Economics

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Along with millions of other Americans, I am very happy and hopeful today because we are inaugurating a compassionate and brilliant man as our new president. As Rachel Maddow just said, "If you're a civics dork, this is bigger than Christmas!" Today is a party, but tomorrow, reality will set in again with a vengence. Our country has so many terrible problems that seem insurmountable, but I feel that Barack Obama feels our pain as individual citizens and will involve us in the solutions to those problems. He has already spoken of the need for all of us to take responsibility for helping to turn our country around. No one can sit back and wait to be rescued, we all have to work very hard.

I've certainly been trying to practice a lot of old-fashioned home economics for the last year--paying down debt, letting the credit cards cool off, cooking at home as often as possible, using the freezer and the pantry more, repairing rather than buying new, repurposing clothes, and, as a quilter, using up the stash. I think we can help each other with this and the Internet and television provide fantastic venues for dispensing information. We need repurposed versions of the homefront efforts during World War II--Victory Gardens, metal drives, grease drives, etc. I feel that people are anxious and willing to do whatever they can to help, but they just need some guidance.

I'm hoping that the bloggers in the quilting community will come up with some great service projects and will serve as conduits for home economic information for all of us. The new year has encouraged many members of the Quilt Art listserv to clean and reorganized their studios and work spaces. Such a clean out and reorganization will produce bags and boxes of things you don't want anymore, and my suggestion is: don't take it to the curb. Make a trip to Goodwill or another charitable organization and donate those things or organize a swap meet at your next quilt guild meeting.

I'm going to enjoy the party today, but also do lots of thinking about the work that is to come. It's nice to be proud to be an American again.

From the bookshelf of the Quilted Librarian

Since this blog is called the Quilted Librarian, I feel compelled to talk about books from time to time. As a middle school teacher-librarian, I do a lot of reading in the young adult category. I just finished a great book by Julie Schumacher called Black Box that deals with a depressed teenager and how her depression affects her family. It's exquisitely written and yet manages to mimic the jerky writing style of a 14-year-old. With three to four page chapters, it's appealing to the reluctant reader, but it's compelling nature will keep them reading until the end.

Right now I'm rereading Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island because it's one of our Battle of the Books selections this year. The old Disney movie of the book was one of my favorites as a child. My students are having a hard time getting started. Nineteenth century writers prepared you for the story a bit more (no one gets vaporized on page one) and all the sea-specific vocabulary is tough going for them. I'm trying to gently coax them into reading it.

The book is a very dog-eared copy of the Atheneum edition with the lovely N.C Wyeth illustrations, but it only adds to my enjoyment. Here be pirates, indeed.

I'm looking forward to reading Neil Gaiman's newest, The Graveyard Book. I heard him interviewed on NPR and ordered it right away. He got the idea for it while watching his son ride his tricycle in a cemetary.

At home, I'm reading Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. He's a fantastic writer--very aware of place and bringing his readers along on his journeys. Getting this insight into the thoughts of our next president makes me even more hopeful for the fate of our country.

Nancy Crow's new book is a real treat and I find myself just sitting down in a comfortable chair and leafing through it again and again, much as I do with her older book, Quilts and Influences. I can't recommend it enough.

An Open Letter to Barack Obama from a 58-year-old woman in North Carolina

Dear Senator Obama,
First of all, you have my vote. You've had it since I first sent you fifty dollars in the spring of 2007. I'd love to see a woman president, but I felt that Hillary had to play too much ball with the old boys' network to really be a champion of women--but I digress. The reason I'm writing you is that I am worried about all the press about women my age who supported Hillary not wanting to vote for you. I can't imagine that any woman who's a wife and mother or grandmother would want this terrible war to continue and McCain certainly seems to be the poster boy for continuing to drain our country's resources, young lives, and, and honor in the world by continuing it. What if they just don't vote, though? You can't let that happen.

So what I have to offer you are some suggestions for connecting with us women and assuring us that you represent our concerns, too. We know you can draw a crowd. Lay off the big venue events now. It's summer time and the kids are out of school. You need to go places where women with children and grandchildren go. Go to grocery stores and farmers' markets. All of us are trying to stretch our dollars there--buying meat that gets marked down because the expiration date is approaching, only buying meat that's on special, shopping at discount grocery stores and local farmers' markets. Go to the doctor's offices and clinics to see the realities of people who have no health insurance. Go to swimming pools, story hour at the public library, play grounds and parks. And when school starts in the fall, go to some faculty meetings and visit some classrooms, because women are a great force in the field of education and No Child Left Behind is poisoning our schools and defeating our teachers and administrators.

The most important thing is to talk with us. We are worried about our aging parents, helping our children pay off massive student loans and find good jobs, paying for health care. We despair of ever retiring in the current economic climate. We hate this war for the lost and wounded lives it has cost of Americans and Iraqis, for the crippling blow to our country's finances, and for the loss of respect that our country has suffered in the world. We are mortified by the fact that our country's leader doesn't seem to have a clue and that our struggles are not even noticed by those in power. Most of us have long since given up on the American dream. Our dream now is to be able to pay all the bills and have a little left over to save each month.

Anna Quindlen in right when she says, "Women carry this country in their arms." Acknowledge that in your speeches. Talk about your mother and grandmothers and that wonderful strong woman you are married to. We know their lives instinctively, but we need to know that you know ours, too. Don't let the Republicans pull you into a "politics as usual" kind of race. Sometimes I think if you just ignore John McCain, he will self-destruct. We like the fact that you haven't taken money from the fat cats. We admire that you are trying to run a different kind of campaign without all the ugliness. We love that you are giving us back some hope. Women work hard without complaint most of the time, but hope makes that work rise above drudgery.

In closing let me say that we all need you to win. You will have a terrible job to do as president, but we will all want you to make things better and we'll do whatever you need us to to make things better. Women will help you with that hard work.
Don't forget us.

Inspiration provided by Anna Quindlen's essay in Newsweek June, 23, 2008.
http://services.newsweek.com//search.aspx?offset=0&pageSize=10&sortField=pubdatetime&sortDirection=descending&mode=summary&q=anna+quindlen&site-search-submit.x=49&site-search-submit.y=8&site-search-submit=0