Ego partum proinde ego sum (I create therefore I am)

(Philosophical musings on a snowy Sunday morning)
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Mr. P is downstairs watching television, a nasty habit if you ask me. TV and hockey games comprise the sum total of his hobbies right now. He used to be very active ~ a true "jock" ~ and was even, in his much younger days, scouted by two Ivy League schools in the U.S. because of his prowess on the ice. Unfortunately the scholarships they offered were too many thousands of dollars short of the required amount and his family could not afford to make up the difference, so he ended up going to university close to home and he met me. The rest, as they say, is history. Maybe.

Anyway, I digress. The point I'm making (or attempting to make) is that Mr. P will leave nothing of himself behind when his time comes to depart the earth. With the exception of a room full of sports memorabilia, there will be nothing left to say to the world, "I was here!" And I happen to think that's very sad.

You may be wondering where all this is coming from. Well, Friday night, we went to visit friends at their house. Mr. P works with the gentleman, who is in his early 60s. We very much enjoy their company, despite the age difference. When we got home that evening, the OnlyChild asked me what we had done at their house and I replied, "We sat around and talked, and I looked at Peter's stamp collection." And she laughed, "Stamps? Wow, he sounds like an interesting person." (sarcasm)
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"No," I protested, "you don't understand. These aren't just stamps. They're history." Really, he has his stamps in albums, based on historical period and the album I was looking at was on the Treaty of Versailles era. He had put them all in context and annotated the layouts. It was kind of like a scrapbook, except with stamps instead of photos. I'm not interested in stamps or stamp collecting; but I am a history geek and this was a fascinating way to display the story. Plus, Peter is leaving behind a part of himself. His children, grandchildren, and so on will pore over these pages in the years to come and they will know who their dad/grandpa/great-grandpa was. He has created something that will last.

Mr. P has created collections of stuff he got from ebay and HMV (namely multiple seasons of NYPD Blue), but none that of will tell future generations anything about him, except that he liked to watch TV. Booooring.

Aren't our children lucky? They will pass down to their children the items we have created. There will be quilts and clothing, knitted scarves and sweaters, soft toys, scrapbooks, holiday decorations, and a generous stash of fabric. They will know, definitively, that their mother/grandmother/great-grandmother was a talented seamstress, and proficient knitter, a dedicated scrapbooker; a lover of red, pink, green, florals, stripes, polka dots; that she loved her family and created for them; that she wanted to be remembered after she was gone; that she believed in the power of the creative spirit. If they're really lucky, we also will pass on our talents!
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And speaking of creating... It worked! My Let is Snow test block was a success and washed up well. There's only one place where it frayed a little, and I know just how to fix that.
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Now, I can continue with the quilt and there will be released into the world yet another item created by me!
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I love seeing the items other people have made. I find inspiration; I oooh and aaah over them; I suppress the twinges of envy at other people's talent. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way. Today, as I navigated my way through blogland, I visited Jodi's blog at Simply This That and the Other. Jodi has created 703 posts! Seven-hundred-and-three! Wow! That is something worth celebrating - so she is. With a giveaway. Take a look at what you could win:

Pretty awesome, eh? Happy Creating!

☺