October 2021

President’s Message
Michele Barnard

“The creation of a single world comes from a huge number of fragments and chaos.”
— Hayao Miyazaki

As I write this, we have no internet. FiOS is down for some reason, so we have no internet, no TV,
and no “landline” phone. The Verizon technician is scheduled to come tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll
be back to normal fairly soon. It’s odd to not have background noise from the TV, but also kind of
nice.

It’s amazing how dependent we are on technology. My youngest is still in high school, and this year
MCPS decided that ALL students would be issued Chromebooks – which is fine until you have no
internet, and wind up hanging out for an hour at Starbucks to do homework. Telework is more
complicated – I can log in through a hotspot on my work phone, but it’s s..l..o..w.

And still – we have tiny computers in our pockets which can do nearly all of the things. Those who
are higher up the techno-ladder can probably do ALL the things!

So while I do appreciate technology, it’s also nice to unplug. Handwork is a pleasant way to get away
from the electronic world for a while. It’s soothing and calming to sit and hand quilt, and I wonder
every time I do it why I don’t do it more.

Yours in quilting,
Michele Barnard