Sunday, March 06, 2011

Another secret knitter

I'm just a secret knitter when it comes to letting people know that I know how to use the needles. This woman was a secret knitter with a more admirable cause. According to the article, she made over two thousand knitted toys during a decade of making them for sick children. She insisted that her efforts remain anonymous, although she relented shortly before her recent death.

I imagine some people find it strange to wish for such commendable work not to be recognized. I understand it, although who's to say if my thinking is at all similar to this woman's. I see such a mindset through the filter of my fraternal grandmother, who didn't ask to be put in the spotlight for the many things she did. I see it in myself in not always taking compliments well and being embarrassed by them. (Like anyone, I want them but often feel I don't deserve them.)

The satisfaction comes in doing something because it's worth doing and not for any extrinsic reward. I assume she felt it was enough to know that what she was doing for worthwhile. It's unfortunate that she didn't directly receive some of the gratitude that surely would have come her way, or so I presume. Still, I appreciate that here was someone filling a need that she perceived and not asking for anything, even the acknowledgment, in return. These days that feels like a rare thing.

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