Dear Lace Friends Around the World, You've created quite a love festival for me in the last 2 days, since I wrote a reply to Lyn about the Little Danish Heart Pattern on the 14th. If you did not see it, the last paragraph prompted quite an ado. It was not about my on-going AOL e-mail delivery problems, but the following: "I was told again this week, that people do not read what I write on Arachne. So sorry, since my free-to-you contributions might suggest a subject for dinner conversation or a local lace group meeting. Maybe I am just writing for future researchers who will delve into Arachne archives? Or, maybe our archives will die and evaporate (as our early correspondence seemingly did), and all will have been for naught." Your input has been encouraging. Not only for me, but I hope for the other regular contributors to Arachne who spend hours in thoughtful research to confirm what they write before hitting Send Now. A note to them once in a while telling how you used the information they shared would be encouraging. When Arachne was very young I begged some prominent American lace experts to participate. The summary of their attitudes was: 1. It is too much work 2. People do not appreciate volunteer efforts 3. No one ever says "thank you" 4. It is a subject ridiculed both publicly and at home 5. Public disagreement is bad for my lace business Last year, at a New England Lace Group meeting, some women mentioned reading my Arachne memos. I asked them to please write to Arachne, because it is known they have much first-hand lace knowledge. Oh! No! You would have thought I asked them to commit a crime. A lot could be said about these attitudes, but I will leave the subject for all to ponder. My motive is to share the many resources located here in a Maine home, and especially to bring the history of women to you all in small bites. Women have always been remarkable in their accomplishments, and not often given credit or thanks. Not only in textile production (which has been traced back to artifacts made in prehistoric times), but also as mothers, teachers, nurses, community volunteers, members of religious orders. It is encouraging that some of our very well-educated 20th Century female scholars are digging deeply into old archives now to bring us more validation. This will help us all to appreciate history as more than memorizing dates of wars, reigns, inventions, sports achievements, scandals, etc. We should wrap up this subject. Before we do - please tell the regular editors, writers, translators, and proofreaders of your lace-related newsletters and Guild bulletins how much you appreciate their gifts of time and knowledge. It really does take a long time to prepare thoughtful information for you, requiring much reading, consultation with others, memories, and so forth, and then condensing salient details into information bites. May you never have to retro-lace! Jeri
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