Atlantic Thread
Good afternoon all, and hope you are well. Droopy leaves here, please send sunshine. I was thinking of putting that message into a bottle as I was finishing off this embroidered map of the route, imagining each place having more sunshine than there is here, which let's face it, wouldn't be difficult. But I was also more positively thinking about the quiet contemplative time I'll be spending in them, and I'm looking forward to that...I love looking at the water, and even though I'll have a lot of hooking to do on the route, there's always time to stare into the waves.
I chose a very dark blue grey for the background; very often the colour of our beloved ocean, ice cream colours for the coastal places, and a yellow chain for the route I'll be taking; 1,600 miles as the crow flies; 42 places, 42 scarves and 1 big blanket. The wall hanging is still a work in progress too, needing some refinement and embellishment yet (like all good stories/). I've embroidered the name of the Atlantic Ocean in the main languages spoken along the route; Irish, English, French, Breton, Spanish/Galician (being mercifully the same spelling here), Portuguese, Arabic and Tamazight. I was a little apprehensive about embroidering in scripts that I've never even written; would I, by a slightly wonky stitch (and let's face it, my embroidery is all a little crooked...), unknowingly transform 'Atlantic Ocean' into 'I'm a massive twat', in the way of those urban legends of holiday tattoos? If I have done just this, please don't tell me and deprive other readers of a laugh. If, however, I've written 'Marmite is better than vegemite' for example, please do tell me, as that would be a massive untruth. The neo-Tifinagh script for the Berber language of Tamazight was interesting to do- it has only recently become a written language once again. Previously written all over North Africa and the Canary Islands, it was somewhat repressed, then written in Arabic script, and then the original writing was revised and revived.
I do believe that language diversity is important. If you speak more than one language, as most humans do, you will know that feeling of when you know a way to express something perfectly in a certain language, but another language just completely lacks the words for it, or the subtle differences in viewing the world that different languages show in comparison. Even within a language, we all know terminology that may be specific to our own subculture, our own local area, or how one word, through association and memory can express a whole idea between close friends. Words are just one of our means of expressing our thoughts and ideas...and a language can be limiting, because no one language has all the words needed to express all of our complex emotions and thoughts. Luckily, we also have our body language, music, rhythm, singing, dancing and visual artwork among many other ways to express ourselves, but I would agree that we would do well to preserve a variety in our human verbal expression too.
I also believe that positive representation of languages is also important, both for the people who use them (particularly when they are in the minority in whatever context), but also for those who do not understand it. Seeing writing we don't understand can cause anxiety and fear- of getting lost, missing something important, of being mocked or excluded from a conversation. If knowledge is power in terms of language, then ignorance is a lack of power, and we don't often want to feel powerless. In the case of Arabic, a combination of subjective, divisive and sensationalist Western media and of Wahhabi imperialism has led to this script being predominantly associated with religion, and due to ignorance of this script, images have been used to stir fear and mistrust by those who wish to create division among humanity. It must be remembered that this is a script in which people also write their dating profiles, their post-party apologies, their erotic love letters, their bedtime stories, their silly jokes, their graffiti and their shopping lists in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Kurdish and Mandinka among many other languages.
And language is what I'm thinking about now...my next task is to create a bit of a glossary for myself in these languages; for knitting and crochet vocabulary, colours, types of yarn and weights and measures. I have a head start in French and Spanish; time to exercise my mind and memory with the rest.
Love and light to you all, and keep smiling, Billy xxxx
I chose a very dark blue grey for the background; very often the colour of our beloved ocean, ice cream colours for the coastal places, and a yellow chain for the route I'll be taking; 1,600 miles as the crow flies; 42 places, 42 scarves and 1 big blanket. The wall hanging is still a work in progress too, needing some refinement and embellishment yet (like all good stories/). I've embroidered the name of the Atlantic Ocean in the main languages spoken along the route; Irish, English, French, Breton, Spanish/Galician (being mercifully the same spelling here), Portuguese, Arabic and Tamazight. I was a little apprehensive about embroidering in scripts that I've never even written; would I, by a slightly wonky stitch (and let's face it, my embroidery is all a little crooked...), unknowingly transform 'Atlantic Ocean' into 'I'm a massive twat', in the way of those urban legends of holiday tattoos? If I have done just this, please don't tell me and deprive other readers of a laugh. If, however, I've written 'Marmite is better than vegemite' for example, please do tell me, as that would be a massive untruth. The neo-Tifinagh script for the Berber language of Tamazight was interesting to do- it has only recently become a written language once again. Previously written all over North Africa and the Canary Islands, it was somewhat repressed, then written in Arabic script, and then the original writing was revised and revived.
I do believe that language diversity is important. If you speak more than one language, as most humans do, you will know that feeling of when you know a way to express something perfectly in a certain language, but another language just completely lacks the words for it, or the subtle differences in viewing the world that different languages show in comparison. Even within a language, we all know terminology that may be specific to our own subculture, our own local area, or how one word, through association and memory can express a whole idea between close friends. Words are just one of our means of expressing our thoughts and ideas...and a language can be limiting, because no one language has all the words needed to express all of our complex emotions and thoughts. Luckily, we also have our body language, music, rhythm, singing, dancing and visual artwork among many other ways to express ourselves, but I would agree that we would do well to preserve a variety in our human verbal expression too.
I also believe that positive representation of languages is also important, both for the people who use them (particularly when they are in the minority in whatever context), but also for those who do not understand it. Seeing writing we don't understand can cause anxiety and fear- of getting lost, missing something important, of being mocked or excluded from a conversation. If knowledge is power in terms of language, then ignorance is a lack of power, and we don't often want to feel powerless. In the case of Arabic, a combination of subjective, divisive and sensationalist Western media and of Wahhabi imperialism has led to this script being predominantly associated with religion, and due to ignorance of this script, images have been used to stir fear and mistrust by those who wish to create division among humanity. It must be remembered that this is a script in which people also write their dating profiles, their post-party apologies, their erotic love letters, their bedtime stories, their silly jokes, their graffiti and their shopping lists in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Kurdish and Mandinka among many other languages.
And language is what I'm thinking about now...my next task is to create a bit of a glossary for myself in these languages; for knitting and crochet vocabulary, colours, types of yarn and weights and measures. I have a head start in French and Spanish; time to exercise my mind and memory with the rest.
Love and light to you all, and keep smiling, Billy xxxx
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