Deanne

It’s 9pm and even with a calendar reminder, I almost forgot about my committment to this posting gig. Sheesh! Day 2 and I’m slacking off.

I’ve spent all day on the box, except for 1 hr of walking/errands. My neck is sore, and probably angry at me. My massage therapist encourages this concept of “micro breaks”, where you get up from the box and do specific exercises to counteract the stagnation of sitting and staring. For example, neck rolls. So, at least I did that today, but to my chagrin, discovered my neck makes a lot of creaking and cricking  sounds when I roll, which is more or less revolting, and doesn’t bode well for continued enthuasiasm for said activity.

Back to the title. I’m reading the infamous “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” for my book club. It’s rather an odd bag of tricks, this book club, which I joined primarily to get back into the habit of reading material other than a) blogs and b) technical stuff. The book club list deserves its own category and series of posts.

Back to the book. First, there is some degree of zen irony that I’m finally reading this book. I had my dad’s copy of the book on my book shelf for a gadzillion years. Last year, we got into this major decluttering phase, and many books were purged.  I didn’t remember getting rid of it, but when it came up as an item for the club, I could so clearly see it’s lovely, soft blue cover, torn edges and all. But a thorough search of 3 bookshelves meant that it too found it’s way into the 50lb pile that was donated to the senior home.  How do I know it was 50 lbs? Before we joined the co-operative auto, we didn’t have a car, and we walked to the senior’s center with a suitcase full of books.  Naturally, I had to weigh it before we left.

Right, so Pirsig floats out the idea that some of us are technophobes and others aren’t afraid to get under the proverbial hood and figure out the mechanics of something. Of course, he’s referring to motorcycles directly, and life obliquely. I think I sit somewhere between a technophobe and an uber geek.  It depends on the technology:) I’m not overly keen of fixing water taps, not that I enjoy listening to the incessant drip, drip, drip of a tap – but I can convince myself it’s soothing, if need be, rather than figure out how to fix it myself.

With old-school technology – ie: knitting, which I’ve recently taken up again, I’m more of a keener. I learned how to cable knit (yey!) and make a button hole, both for a wool scarf, which is too itchy for me to wear. Even though the wool is a soft 20% silk. These two tasks required enormous concentration and yet were well worth the effort of paying attention. What was worth it was the sense of completion, of satisfaction, and, clearly, of being able to see the finished produce in such  a (relatively) short time.  Something I could hold in my hands, and if my skin wasn’t so damn sensitive I could wear.  But I equally know that in the past I’ve shied away from learning these extra skills, preferring to stick within my comfort zone, k1, p1, et al. Therefore I have great sympathy for technophobes.

More later perhaps. I promised myself to write one post a day, not to draw zen-like conclusions every day….