Leather, addiction and Bernard Shaw

Spend some time playing with leather again last night.  I just went with the shape of the piece and came up with this necklace.  I added some elk teeth, a few beads and some blue leather for color.  I also had a clock face which I added with a bit of the blue leather for the hand.  I like how it turned out.  It is nice to have those instant gratification projects.

I have written about Gabor Maté previously here and here.  I had not seen him speak before, but we watched his Ted Talk on addiction last night and I was struck by how much like an elder his way of telling stories was.  He shared his own short comings and did not try to package it all in a tidy little package that we could put in place or buy today.  He laid out some thoughts and left them with us.  I thought it worked very well and it certainly left a lot to think on.

Found a couple of quotes I had saved from when I read "The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism" written by Bernard Shaw.  My edition is from 1928.

"Our society must not be judged by its few rebels, but by its millions of obedient subjects."  Shaw on why the existence of rebels does not mean that society has the kernels of change in their midst.  The ordinary should be judged for themselves and not by the glimmers of other they allow to shine through.  Rebels, may just be rebels and not portent of anything better to come.

"Those who like playing the god Samaritan should remember that you cannot have good Samaritans without thieves.  Saviors and rescuers may be splendid figures in hagiography and romances, but as they could not exist without sinners and victims they are bad symptoms.  The virtues that feed on suffering are very questionable virtues...there will always be plenty of need in the world for kindness, but it should not be wasted on preventable starvation and disease.  Keeping such horrors in existence for the sake of exercising our sympathies is like setting our houses on fire to exercise the vigor and daring of our fire brigades.  It is the people who hate poverty, not those who sympathize with it who will put an end to it."