Needle felted polar bear & penguin -- make your own with instructions at marthastewart.com.
http://www.marthastewart.com/907387/needle-felted-polar-bear
There are a few people who I remember the exact moment I met
them, and since I do not seem to remember much these days, this seems
important. I remember when I first laid
eyes on my husband—I can picture the frame of the door while I was walking
through the office of the Forest Service and he was sitting in my seat waiting
for me to return. I remember meeting my future
advisor, Ray Semlitsch, at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory where I was
working as a technician and having lunch with him at an on-sight dining hall
that I had never heard of—he was surprisingly down to earth given that everyone
seemed to think he invented salamanders. And, I remember my introduction to Martha
Stewart (not actually in person), also while I was working at the Savannah
River Ecology Lab in 1994/1995. Two interns from Drexel were mentioning that it
was kind of boring in town after work—so I made the obvious suggestion: You need to get a craft. It wasn’t long before they were telling me
that they had found a craft and they opened an issue of a new magazine, Living. I can picture them setting the
magazine down before me in the SREL library and turning to the page of some
sort of ornaments that looked like glass grapes. It was clear, these were crafts for elitists.
I probably told them so—at the time I was reading Gandhi’s autobiography & Walden and embracing the simple life, which
conveniently coincided with my poverty wages. But, it was not too many months more before I
myself was subscribing to crafts for elitists and Martha Stewart became one of
my heroes. (Ray Semlitsch also thought Martha
rocked, which I attribute to the fact that they both shared a love of things
being just so.)
In subsequent years I came to the conclusion that Martha may
be a little crazy. Possibly a
sociopath. Who else would require that
every ingredient be “the finest [chocolate, bourbon, coconut, salt, [fill in
the blank] that you can afford”? Who
else would fill buckets with ice and evergreens that could be used as giant
votives lining the walkway up to her house(s)?
Her level of collecting things has to be pathological. It is certainly against everything we have
been reading this semester addressing the biodiversity and climate CRISIS that
directly or indirectly points to the need of fewer unnecessary items. But, here she is in our book doing a
documentary on the Churchill polar bears—and doing a damn good job of it, even
if she did “go rogue.” You can see it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5u3jiDcMv8
or here: http://www.marthastewart.com/287312/polar-bear-preservation
(It’s good, but yes, we could still talk
about her hat.) We need the Martha Stewarts on television saying things like, “and
people still don’t believe in climate change” and showing the plight of
biodiversity. Martha does clearly love
her animals—most people do. But mostly, the biodiversity crisis is off our
radar. Maybe the Marthas get it on the radar for a minute, which may leave it
knocking around inside our minds for much longer.
The fascinating aspect of Mooallem’s book so far is the
power of story in influencing the perceptions of the public. How you “spin” the story of polar bears can
shift the way people view not only the plight of the bear, but how they view
climate change. He used the example of a
rather horrific hunting story where Teddy Roosevelt’s hunting guide traps a
bear for Roosevelt and ties it to a tree (meanwhile injury the animal)—Roosevelt
refuses to shoot it and asks for the guide to put the animal out of its
misery. From this story springs the idea
for the teddy bear, which shifts the view of the bear that were being widely
eradicated as a threat to humans and livestock.
It’s not quite an accurate shift—hugging real bears can be hazardous for
your health—but it is a positive portrayal.
Mooallem appears to be trying to get a balanced perspective on the
natural world—polar bears may look cuddly, but they are serious predators
capable of causing injury, which people seem to forget if they buy into the
cuddly version too heavily. Martha seems to get it right—there is a real
delight and thrill in seeing polar bears in person, but there is also respect
for the predator and concern for their plight in this world that has got a
little carried away with its self. She tells a good story that is firmly
grounded in reality. (Also, of course, polar bears are good craft inspiration…see
above.) While I’m admiring Martha again, it reminds me that maybe crafting is part
of the solution—and if more elitists & regular folks crafted and made our
own practical stuff (i.e., if we all learned how to do things again), it would
reduce the need to ship all those clothes and unnecessary plastic objects from
China, which might in the end help the polar bear and the rest of diversity.
And DIY projects: good, clean fun.
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