Recently I’ve been reading articles by clergy, including several rabbis, that reassure us of life beyond coronavirus.
One way practically anybody can reinforce this hope in tomorrow is to work on a long-term craft project today. Great talent is not a requirement — I have been an intermediate knitter for years and am presently knitting a shawl to wear next winter.
Knitting has many lessons to teach us during this period of social isolation.
Most knitting projects take time. Like Rome, they will not be completed in a day. Trying to beat the clock usually results in my resorting to the old knitting adage: first you knit and then you rip. In like manner, our country will not recover from this physical, financial, and emotional crisis in a heartbeat. Time will be our best ally.
Sometimes a knitting project turns out different from how I imagined it and will have to be modified to fit me. Dr. Anthony Fauci frequently reminds us that in this war against the virus, we are dealing with many unknowns. If one mode of attack doesn’t work, it will have to be re-calibrated or scrapped for another.
But the most important lesson I’ve absorbed from knitting this shawl for the upcoming year is that however it unfolds, there will be a next year. And that belief is enough to sustain me.
— Barbara Russek
