Another thing that made me go "Hmmmmm?!"

It's taken me a while to write this. The actual event that prompted my thought process happened about a month ago -- the Olympics. But even before that, there were some things that made me think about perspective. Now that those thoughts have perculated a while, here's my post...

Scene 1: Chicago
I had the good fortune to attend a conference this summer in Chicago. There were representatives from across the US and Canada in attendance who deal with public relations, and have a broad segment of the population they represent. They represent this group to a wide target audience, so there's a lot that has to be considered in their messaging. Within this group, I found the perspectives about diversity very interesting.... more specificially the Canadian/US differences in the perspctives about what is "diversity".

In my home area of southern Ontario, we experience diversity as recognizing, respecting and appreciating differences in race, culture, abilities, religion -- really, all differences. In the US, I was surprised to find a much narrower focus -- not on all aspects of diversity, but primarily on race. This came up for discussion at several workshops -- making sure there was visible representation in videos, facilitation groups specifically targetting the different racial groups, and the socio-economic differences within these racial groups.

I understand how hundreds of years of history -- more noteably the past several decades -- has shaped this perspective, but isn't diversity more than that? Should diversity be measured in more than just black and white?

Scene 2: Rio Olympics
I watched a lot of the Olympic coverage from Rio. It was wonderful to see the comraderie between athletes, the joy of the medalists, and the enthusiasm from the fans. I took great delight in the side-stories -- how the medals were made from a percentage of recycled metals, and the ribbons from recycled materials; how the water in the diving pool created a sensation -- and the back-stories of the athletes.

But what made me think of the diversity issue again was when Canada's Penny Oleksiak won her fourth Olympic medal in a tie for gold with the American swimmer Simone Manuel in the 100m freestyle. The commentators with CBC (Canada's Olympic broadcaster) had been totally focused on a different diversity angle in their coverage to that point -- specifically how Canada's medal haul had been entirely at the success of its women athletes. That didn't mean they weren't sharing the background stories of the male athletes, but it was their 'hook' on Canada's Olympic story to-date.

That was until the shared gold medal win by Simone Manuel. In an interesting side story, CBC followed up on the major storyline being pursued by the US media -- that Simone was the first black/African-American woman to win a gold medal in an individual event. Now I'm not saying the gold medal wasn't a huge accomplishment -- it was. And I'm not saying the efforts of any athlete achieving gold in an individual competition isn't worthy of recognition. What I am asking is why is it important to centre out Simone's race and/or culture to make it newsworthy?

One of the interviewees spoke to the CBC reporters and commented that socio-economic conditions of black/African-American children often don't provide opportunities to advance in competition sports, and this was a huge boon to children who would now have a role model as they pursued their dreams.

Okay. An interesting perspective. But I'm not convinced.

There are kids of all races and cultures who haven't had the financial support, or coaching -- or even family encouragement -- to pursue whatever athletic dreams they may have had. I wonder what the US media coverage would have looked like if they'd talked to the gymnasts from Ukraine and asked what their gym looks like, and what equipment they access for practice or training. I doubt there's huge financial support for them to participate in competitions leading up to the Olympics. Yet they were competing despite socio-economic advantage (or disadvantage), political turmoil and any number of other factors. Were they lauded for their accomplishments based on race? Nope.

Was there any US media headline about a potential disadvantage for the Egyptian beach volleyball women who, because of their cultural norms, had to deal with the Rio temperatures in their team uniforms that were more significant than the skimpy bathing suit attire of other countries? Nope.

Other than the pre-Olympic coverage about the Refugee Team (a brilliant move by the IOC, by the way), was there any follow-up about their successes, even if they didn't garner a podium finish? Nope.

Of course, the US media coverage of the Olympics is well known for its narrow scope. If you're not a US athlete, you don't exist. If it's a sport without a US athlete, it's not important. (note: the fiasco with Ryan Lochte's "exageration" did hijack much of the last few days of the US coverage. And by the way, I'm still wondering how you can 'exagerate' a lie?!). But even with those parameters, the headlines still were focused on Simone's race when she won gold.

So why does diversity in the US have to be so black and white?

I wonder if the CBC coverage would have been different if a gold medal had been won by one of our First People. Would the headlines have mirrored what we saw in the US? "First Nations Athlete wins medal" vs. "Canadian athlete wins". Would we have shifted our focus from the "women athletes", to single out one athlete's race or culture? Or are we more diversity-saavy than that?

There is one area where the lines will no doubt become blurred in future Olympic games. It'll be interesting to watch the Olympics in future years as the lines between gender become more blurred. I wonder what the headlines will be when a transgender athlete wins a medal. Or if that athlete is black/African-American, or First Nations, Inuit or Metis? I wonder if there will be a difference in how countries report it. Will the US continue to focus on race?

I really do hope the lines will become more blurred in future Olympics, so it won't matter what colour you are, what your religion is, or what your socio-economic status is. What matters is that sport should be accessible for all, and this opportunity exists for people from all countries to join together in competition. It should reflect the comraderie and conduct we saw in Rio, where fellow sprinters stopped to help those who had fallen, where hugs given as often as medals on the podium. It should be more than black and white ...it should be the colours in the flags of every country!

It's been a while....

...but I've been busy. I've been working through my yarn stash. I've been travelling. And I've been reconnecting with friends, and meeting new ones. All of these things are connected in a nice way. Let me explain...

Several months back, I dipped my toe in the "Will Work for Yarn" pool on Ravelry. It's an amazing group of knitters, who for a myriad of reasons will knit projects that are not their own. There are rules of course -- check-in timelines, how many projects you're allowed to take on, etc. -- but this helps it run as a highly functioning group. Try and explain this to someone who is not a knitter, and it's a bit challenging!

So, let's say you have a yarn stash that has outgrown your anticipated life expectancy (not that any knitter wants to admit that!). You really would like to wear/use those projects you had designated for the yarn, but there's just not enough time to knit it all! Enter the WWFY group... and knitters who, for payment yarn (in this group, payment yarn is of an equivalent value to the yarn you've designated for the project), will knit your project for you, and return it to you as a completed project! Many of these knitters like the challenge of learning a new technique, taking on a challenging pattern, or knitting something they wouldn't knit for themselves. As an example, one knitter loves to knit lace, but doesn't wear it... and I love to wear my lace shawls/scarves but don't have time to knit everything in my stash or queue.

I've met some fantastic people through this group -- both in person and in the Ravelry virtual world. And I have some amazing projects that I am now able to wear, and not have to wait until I'm 140 years old to finally knit them! But no matter how wonderful the projects (and believe me, they're wonderful... more on that in a moment), it's the people who make this such an enriching experience.

I'm so fortunate to have an incredible virtual friendship with Jackie and Loresa on opposite ends of our country, but it feels like we're next door! And even though Nicole is several provinces to my west, she and I have had the luxury of bonding over cupcakes!! Rebekah, Rose and Kelly are almost "next door" geographically, and I've enjoyed our chats, laughs and meetings in person. It's like we've known each other for years, and all because of a common bond over fibre and sticks! There are so many others -- Marilyn, Pam, Gunta, Fay, Lynn, Bhama, Helen, Mugdha, Vivian, Alex, and another Alex, as well as Robyn, Jasmine, Erica, Minja, Kaiya and Jen.... Each of these wonderful knitters have taken on skeins that have been languishing in my stash and turned them into works of art! I'm so thankful!!!

Let me share some eye candy...

Wonderful, eh?! And that's just a small sampling....

Another benefit of this group is that it has taken some of the pressure off me knitting my own projects. I now have time to focus on the knitting experience and enjoy the projects I'm finishing, without the Damocles Sword dangling overhead. I've also 'paid it forward' too, and have knit two projects for others.... actually in the process of finishing the second one this week. It's a great experience to knit with different yarn, try different techniques, and I can say it has helped me develop a second-sense in reading charts and intuitively understanding the relationship of stitches in a pattern. Benefits all around!!