Mrs. Curley and I have been talking about Christmas this year. There was a year in the tight Requiem Press days where we made all (or just about all) our Christmas presents for the children. The shop and sewing room were very busy that year. As I recall there is a Little House on the Prairie episode which inspires this kind of Christmas gift giving.
We have been talking about the supply chain and lamenting out personal dependence on it and China. But I read this at Front Porch Republic this morning. Here is the "money quote", although you read the whole thing.
With the supply chain tangled, we have what may be a brief moment to consider its flaws without being blinded by the glare of its surface efficiencies. Perhaps, we can craft a Christmas experience not dependent on plastic molded an ocean away. As David Cayley, author of a fine introduction to the work of renegade priest Ivan Illich, noted on a recent B.S. podcast, we should beware of an institutionalized Incarnation. The more we farm out our expressions of affection to things and entities designed to do the work for us, the more we miss the point. More gifts rooted in real engagement and fewer dependent upon shipping containers could be one of the benefits the broken supply chain delivers.
Mrs. Curley and I had already discussed moving back towards opening the workshops for this Christmas. (I hope this doesn't set out panic in my children - if any of them even bother to read my blog anymore.)
Oremus pro invicem!
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