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 One of the Nicest Things About Beaders
by Alice Korach
I’ve been thinking a lot about the inflamed rhetoric that preceded and followed our recent presidential election. I have no intention of telling you who I voted for or of preaching politics here. One of the things I love most about the beading community is how we all respect each others’ rights to her own beliefs and religious and political views and how unimportant those personal things are in our dealings with each other. But so much of what I’ve been hearing in the last few months worries me that our tolerance of each others’ differences is an endangered behavior.
Oh, I’m not worried that beaders are going to start ostracizing one another because of personal views. Beads are too big, too enduring, too permanent a part of human culture to become caught up in the short view. What, after all, is the year 2004 in comparison to 35,000 or more years that people have cared deeply about beads. Beads and the spirit of those who love them will endure beyond the changing nature of political parties and the statements of politicians and idealogues. Beads were there at the beginnings of human culture and are deeply rooted in what it means to be human.
But sometimes I worry that our tolerance and friendly acceptance of each other puts us in the minority. The world has become far too small and dangerous a place for people to be motivated by hatred and fear of those who are different. I live in a neighborhood that is in the process of turning over. Most of the elderly residents have sold their homes or died, and the houses are full of families with young children and new babies. We all want these children to have a future, and we hope it will be a bright one filled with opportunities and future wonderful memories.
What can beaders do to help make that future a reality? We can continue to be ourselves. And we can continue to accept others as themselves. I love what Rafannette Dooley says in her Bead Scene article about how she loves to talk to people about beads and to take time to demonstrate and teach them. She, like so many of us beaders, doesn’t judge them first to decide whether they are worthy of her time and attention. She knows that if they are interested in beads, they share a kinship with her that goes beyond any system of belief, color, creed, or national origin. They are human and therefore worthy of beads.
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