“world”

I just posted entry #8 to my Facebook page…#8 out of 40…should I complete the challenge.  The challenge is to take a photo each day of Lent, each day having a word that the photo needs to represent.  Two days ago, Monday, the word was “world”.  What to do for that?  We have a globe in the house…but that was so obvious and too easy.  Was I looking for something to represent my world or the whole world?  I had no clue.

But Monday I finished up a knitting project and started looking at what to knit next.  I pulled out a skein of beautiful silk yarn and started balling it by hand.  As the ball grew larger, it occurred to me that the ball of yarn was a good representation of the world.  So I photographed the ball of yarn in my light box and posted the photo with the word “world” in the comment box.  I thought for sure someone would wonder what the ball of silk yarn had to do with the world.  No one did.

So here is my explanation of how this beautiful ball of silk yarn is the world…

The bulk of all living things…humans, animals and plants…is made of the same materials…carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.  Humans are physically all the same.  Yes, we have color variations, different hair, some are born with missing limbs or blind or other birth defects.  But our physical essences is all the same material…all the same fiber.  I get annoyed sometimes with the use of the term race to divide the HUMAN race into parts based on color…because we are all the same physical creatures, we have the same basic parts inside and out, we share the same emotions.  There is ONE human race.  Our lives are completely intertwined with each others (directly and indirectly).  Our lives take us all in a million different directions and sometimes they cross each others or run parallel.  Our world is interesting and wonderful in part because of the variety we as individuals bring to it…our different cultures, tastes, interests…all those things help make us unique.  These differences are what make the world such a colorful place.

Do you see the connection yet?

So this ball of 100% silk…the yarn fibers made of the same material, like all (or at least most) living creatures being made of the same materials.  And as the yarn is wrapped to form a ball, the ball is turned every few wrappings…crisscrossing and intertwining the yarn in a million different directions.  This particular yarn was hand dyed with multiple colors.  It’s not just blotches of red, blue, green, orange, etc…it’s many shades of all those colors that are blended to create more colors and more variety.  All these colors that together make the yarn interesting and colorful.  The yarn, with its variety of hues, is wrapped in every direction giving the ball of yarn a beautiful texture.  Silk is a luxurious fiber, it’s special…isn’t the world and all creation as well?

The world as a ball of silk yarn.

Valerie