Lindsey Britt is a textile artist, solution-finder, award-winning vegan baker, and nonprofit administrator who serves on the Brattleboro Planning Commission and is a member of Compassionate Brattleboro.
BRATTLEBORO-It's a run-of-the-mill gray top that I've had for so long I no longer remember where it came from. I wore it a lot over the years, so it got permanently discolored around the cuffs. For some reason my husband really likes it, so I've held onto it even though I've felt a little ashamed of wearing something that, to me, looks obviously dirty though technically still in good repair.
Recently I decided to fix this problem and rediscovered something in the process: Engaging and transforming a physical item that I've become habituated to and taken for granted suddenly multiplies the connection I feel to it tenfold. I actually feel a bit protective of a piece of clothing that was until a few days ago on its way into the scrap bin.
Now I'm treating this piece of clothing as an extension of my body and a canvas for expression. I'm not one for getting actual tattoos, but I've begun covering the top with various works of embroidery, an art form that I've been deeply connected to for many years and which has historical roots in my family.
This is an opportunity to create small, meaningful vignettes to remind myself of who I am at my core. I'm now excited about and fully connected to an object that I recently took for granted and for which I even felt some disdain.
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This process has reminded me of how connection - real, tangible, thought-out, meaningful, sometimes sacrificial involvement - is what makes not only objects, but people, places, and ideas, matter to us.
Without that intimate involvement they tend to hover in worlds of abstraction and subjectivity where they are easy to ignore or dismiss. We don't concern ourselves with them, or maybe we leave them to the purview of others, sometimes thinking we've chosen someone wiser or better prepared to handle them on our behalf.
But this type of separation gets us to the same place I got to with my gray top: disconnection, lack of understanding, and disrespect for something that is perfectly worthy of my attention.
Essentially, everything becomes easier to literally and figuratively throw away if we aren't actively engaged in its advancement, preservation, or transformation.
Whether it's my gray top, our shared democracy, or the air we breathe, I shouldn't abdicate my responsibility, and the best way to do that is to be intimately involved.
I'm not a glutton for punishment or a fool (or at least I try not to be) - I know I can't do everything, but I also know the words attributed to Unitarian clergyman Edward Everett Hale to be true: "I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something."
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