Added a few more rows to the Dolman Updated last night.

And I began reading "Zen and the Art of Knitting", which (almost unbelievably to me) I found at the Hasting's near me (motto: "We sell CDs, computer software, coffee, magazines, and oh yeah, those book things too).

It was on the clearance aisles. I think it was part of a mess of books the Hastings gets trucked in regularly to stack deep and sell cheap (at least, I never saw it on the regular shelf).

It's quite interesting, and says a lot of things I've been thinking about. I'm up to the chapter discussing the Waldorf school now, and although some of the "insights" are a bit precious ("don't use synthetic yarn or it'll stunt your ability to know what's real and what's not"), I have to say how much I envy the Waldorf environment: they have INCANDESCENT LIGHTS in the classrooms! They have fully stocked supply cabinets! They have treehouses on the playground!

It sounds too good to be true, and it makes me sort of sad to think that only a few priveliged children (the children of Hollywood and televsion execs, in this case, which is interesting because Waldorf schools request that children not watch television or play video games*) get that experience. I'm sure there are down sides to the Steiner schools, but the book makes them sound like something I'd want every child to experience...heck, I'd like to escape into the world of a Waldorf school and spend part of the day knitting and part of the day gardening and be around people who are polite more often than not...

(*perhaps that would provide sort of a control group for a study actually investigating the claim that television viewing in young children lowers their attention spans and may "rewire" brains in ways that contribute to ADD. But then again, you'd have to control for classroom environment, and parental care, and income...)