Splash No. 145 - Say It Ain't Sew
Say It Ain't Sew
Listen, I haven’t seen anyone not related to me in over 6 months so now the closest people to me are the garments that adorn my body. Each fabric friend has its own special value and perspective. There’s the gifted t-shirt, which flatters me and has stuck around longer than its bestower did; the American Eagle polo whose history extends to high school; the comfy sweatpants that I stole from my brother. So imagine my horror when I discovered that some of my best buds were victim to the relentless march of time’s arrow — their seams had worn thin and holes began to appear on their surfaces. And, most critically, the pockets of my favorite sweatpants had developed punctures: threatening to banish my chapstick from ever being found again.
After I recovered from my shock, I realized that the nature of my material amigos meant that their fate wasn’t set in stone. My cloth comrades could be repaired with a needle and a thread… in theory at least. Despite my many talents, I was useless in the textile arts, leading to my recruitment of my mother to educate me in the way of the needle. I uncovered the sewing basket, filled to the brim with buttons from every shirt, coat, and jacket that had ever passed through the Sethi household. And after 20 minutes of trying to thread the needle and 5 minutes of actual sewing, I was, blessedly, able to save the souls of my poor cotton companions. The seams were strengthened, the holes were closed, and everything was how it should be.
My simple surgery provided me with a level of satisfaction that I haven’t felt in a while. It’s the satisfaction of tearing down a wall of ignorance, filling in a gap of knowledge that seemed obvious. Despite 23 years of living, laughing, and loving, I had managed to avoid ever understanding what held my clothes together. And every time a piece of clothing had a hole, I’d let my mother magically mend it without becoming any wiser. In this instance, I wanted to learn, because it seemed like something that could come in handy, or could possibly lead to my next career as a seamster. The knowledge of a simple stitch is small, but there’s something valuable in feeling like I can fix something and preserve something that’s useful or important to me.
The more I seem to learn about the world, the more it feels like I’m too small to affect anything — that most of what happens is a result of environments and systems built by enormous amounts of people over enormous amounts of time. That every problem expands far beyond what I can see or understand or perceive at all. And so, even if I can’t fix any of those things in a few minutes, it’s empowering to know that I can fix some small things. That with my hands, I can turn a hole whole again. And if I can do that, maybe there are other things I can work to fix, too.
Drops of the Week
PLAYLIST - OFFICIAL Chessbrah TECHNO - listening to techno while watching a guy play chess on Twitch is one of my new favorite hobbies
ARTICLE - "The Downward Spiral" by Dean Kissick - takes I agree with about popular taste and how NFTs are representative of what that looks like now
BOOK - The Answer Is...: Reflections on my Life by Alex Trebek - RIP to the legend Alex Trebek.
With each day, we can move closer to a more equitable world. Reminders:
Donate to Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta Mutual Aid Networks
Anti-racism resources
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Unhole-y and yours,
Nikhil