Areas of Unrest

22 August 1999 - Coal and Paste

I was thoroughly surprised when looking at one of the inserts in my electric bill to discover that 55% of the electricity for the city of Los Angeles is generated by coal burning plants. I'm not sure what I expected, but I think of coal as something horribly old-fashioned, virtually obsolete. Perhaps because I normally don't think of coal at all, except when I see a movie in which coal mines figure, e.g. Brassed Off.

So it was an interesting coincidence that after seeing that mention of coal, I saw another movie in which coal mines play a major part. Namely, October Sky. I rented it largely because Robert had told me several times how much I would like it - and he was right. I am glad that I saw it at home, not in the theatre though, as this way I had a box of tissues close at hand. Those grim scenes of miners marching through town at dawn are depressing enough, even without the mine accidents. And, of course, the story itself - namely Homer Hickam's interest in rocketry becoming his path out of Coalwood - was fascinating. Lots of what happens is predictable, as in any of these inspiring movies, but I still get all teary. When I sent Robert email telling him how much I'd liked the movie, he mentioned that he has photos of Coalwood, having taken a side trip there when he was at a conference in Virginia this summer, and he'll show them to me in December.

The main thing I wanted to write about, though, is that it strikes me that one aspect of coal mining is that it's very obvious what the product is. Most jobs nowadays are things that are very hard to explain because they don't produce anything tangible. My favorite example is the International Earth Rotation Service. The IERS is the body that measures the rate of rotation of the earth and determines when leap seconds are needed. (The earth is slowing down slightly and leap seconds can be declared as often as twice a year, on January 1st and July 1st. They aren't of any significance to ordinary people, but become important in astronomical coordinate conversions.) I can't imagine what people who work for the IERS tell their children they do for a living.

I know what the products of my job are. They're briefings and reports and emails. But I still feel a need to create things I can hold and point to and say "here, I made this with my own hands." Which is why I knit and crochet and spin and make lace and do needlepoint and so on. Yesterday was a crafts day, spent at Wildfiber making paste paper. It was tremendous fun smearing a mix of methyl cellulose paste and tempera paint on paper and using various tools (ranging from tile edgers and faux finishing combs to cut up credit cards and plastic cutlery) to create textures on the paper. We learned a whole bunch of techniques, including imbedding wrapping paper on the paste layer, and pressing two pieces of pasted paper together and stamping patterns on the back before pulling them apart. I ended up with 11 sheets of paste paper, only one of which I am really disappointed in, largely because the color combination just didn't quite work. It may be salvageable and I can probably use it in small pieces.

I enjoyed this so thoroughly that I've made a decision to set aside time each month for arts and crafts day. The idea is to try new crafts and maybe invite friends over to play as well. It will probably be a Sunday afternoon thing and juggling it into my schedule for the next couple of months is tricky, but I think this will be very satisfying in the long run.