I’ve recently noticed that more and more of my overworked, stressed-out friends are pursuing their own forms of personal expression – cooking imaginative recipes, making furniture in their basements, or knitting glorious sweaters and scarves. As for myself, I am baking every cake recipe in sight, presenting these prizes to family and friends with the explanation that butter and eggs are the new health food.

For all of us, it is to some degree a form of therapy, a chance to stare the world in the eye and say, “I made this.” Whether we’re holding a masterpiece or a crude first attempt, the value lies less in the object than in the fact that we made it.

These are partly personal expressions and, in part, introspective activities. We intuitively turn to the traditions of creating as a means to counter the enormous weight of all that is manufactured and packaged in our lives. Almost everything we own is made for us, as consumers. There is enormous satisfaction in creating something for ourselves and for those we love.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 4:40 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can also leave a response.