The Golden Thread

I ran into an old acquaintance at the coffee shop this morning, and heard yet another version of the recession blues. This guy is thinking about Korea, and teaching English, because he can’t find work here. Another friend, the J.J., landed in China this week to begin 10 months as an English teacher as well. If I was a rabid Ron Paul libertarian, I would take a moment to discuss the irony of us training people abroad to take our jobs, but I don’t actually believe that.

More interesting to me was this brother’s mention of a “golden thread” that runs through all of his work experience and life interests. I asked him what he has been doing, and what he is looking to get involved in, and his answer ran broadly from one thing to another. “I know it sounds all over the place, but there is a golden thread that runs through all of it that I see as my unifying theme.” I won’t share his golden thread here, but it started me thinking about my own golden thread.

Another friend, Kelly Boehmer, sews horrifically beautiful sculptures by hand, with red thread always. Red thread is her golden thread.

If I value anything, I value service and creativity. I am buttressed by one, and grab for the other however I can, but sometimes I wish it was the other way around.

Juancho

3 Responses to The Golden Thread

  1. Wow. I was puzzled by the ‘horrifically beautiful’ description of Kelly’s work until I saw it from the link. Wow!Amazing!

    Feet(or wheels?)on the path, head in the clouds. In the continuum one thing always leads to the next. Time travel.

  2. Nope, no thread. Just a rag bin of fabrics that is selected, seemingly at random. I wash the rags every so often and all the past rags become homogenized slowly into the present.
    If I sewed them all together, I’d never be able to use them individually.