This here blog had 1554 unique visitors in March 2004, and out of them 18 added it to their favorites. There was a typo in the February stats—that should have been 1119 unique visitors, not 119. There were 16 posts last month, so my rate of publication is increasing. FP’s top two referrers are sites I’ve never heard of and one is in an oriental language I can’t even read. Across, Beyond, Through is the top referrer that I know is legit. Thank you, Rev. Parker. “Bart Ehrman” continues to be the top search phrase bringing browsers to this site. I hope you find what you’re looking for. It’s still a crawly Amphibian in the TTLB Ecosystem.
For those who missed FP’s April Fools get up, you can still see what you missed here.
Finally, Facilitating Paradox turns a year old on April 12. I’m not sure what I’m going to do for the occasion, but keep an eye out for something special.
What Excites me About Socks
(This entry requires at least a modicum of explanation… I had started a draft of a paper on what excites me about knitting socks, but had to leave it for several eventful days, and now that I return to it I can’t quite remember where I put that yarn. I was more or less brainstorming extemporaneously, rather than logically putting my socked foot in my mouth. This is what remains, and I’m undecided on what I’m going to do with it…)
What excites me most about knitting socks is summed up in a term I have coined: sockism. The lack of any toes in most socks and the fact that we don’t have opposable thumbs on our feet is vibrant and refreshing. To start with the foundation that all members of the community have two feet to stand on and that we all have ten toes (or embrace anyone who doesn’t.) This is the basis of true peace, lasting shalom. This is most easily described and understood as making nice wool socks amongst ourselves. Such warm, wool socks, especially when they are bright and colorful, have the potential to bridge differences of belief and unite disparate podiatricalogical and sole perspectives.
I am excited about the truth in the old proverb that you can judge a foot by its sock. Our skimble-skamble heritage affirms this by nodding to people’s feet, not their meat. As someone who stands on my own two feet, I believe it is my path to assist people in assessing their sock options based on the toes and the heels they bring to their lives, through their feet, ankles and shins. This process of legwork is much more open and therefore rewarding in knitting socks because it is not tied down to any particular color or texture of thread.
And yet, contemporary fiddlesticks are inheritors of a whangdoodle heritage that we should be proud of. Historically the flimflam and flummadiddle organizations have been on the forefront of sock justice and foot covering movements amongst most jiggery-pokery organizations. Our socks have been prophetic and inspirational.