I really shouldn't, but I started cutting out yet another quilt. Part of it is because I'm hoping to get a NEW (to me) SEWING MACHINE later this week that I hope will greatly improve me FMQ-ing ability. Part of it is due to the subject matter. I'm still in shock about the Japanese earthquake and now the nuclear threat. In our own family, I worry about my husband's cousin's wife, who is from Tokyo, and has family there. It's affected me personally in many ways.
As mentioned, before on my blog, I watched my own family flee from Hurricane Katrina, which filled their house with 2-3 feet of water, as well as my dad's church, a block away. It took them years to reconstruct their house and the church, and the anxiety we all felt still is with us. The devastation I see, on what little news I can bear to watch, is even too much to bear. So this disaster has brought back all of those feelings and anxiety, and sadness. I don't want to air dirty laundry, but I partially blame Katrina for my dad's death, due to the fact that even a few years after Katrina, in the city of New Orleans, there were no cardiologists or pulminologists to be found on-call the week-end my dad suffered from a pulmonary embolism. Still there's insufficient medical personnel there, one reason I'm very glad that my family now lives in Dallas. Short story long, I'm just sick with my own personal knowledge of what lays ahead for the people of Japan.
We also live about 50 miles away from the Hanford Nuclear Site, the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States. It was also the place where the nuclear material came from for the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. We have here in Pendleton, 50 miles away, nuclear fall out shelter locations. We all know what iodine tablets are. So that threat is also a very real one to me. It's overwhelming. I cope partially by sewing and creating. Just as I made my family a quilt after Katrina, I hope I can find a good family to give this one to in Japan eventually. Until then, I'll send what help we can afford in the form of money, and encourage everyone else to do so. If everyone sends a little, it adds up!
2 comments:
Wow, Becky. The disaster in Japan is hard enough for anybody to watch, but I can see why it would be worse for you and others affected by Katrina. And I had no idea there was still such a shortage of medical personnel in New Orleans. That's inexcusable and very sad.
Thanks for linking up to WIP Wednesday. I'm glad you have your new quilt to work on!
Wow, I understand slightly because we lived through Katrina also and thankfully didn't have the sorts of problems and sadness that your family experienced. Seeing all the devastation in Japan certainly brings it back though, and can't imagine actually living near a nuclear plant and having that worry on top of it!
Your quilt blocks are certainly pretty, and yes crafting certainly does take ones mind off of things!
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