Disadvent 11
Dec. 11th, 2023 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocoptera(This one is kind of an essay.)
When I was a kid we made a lot of cards. When I was really little we made cards for my grandparents for every holiday you can think of - Valentines cards, St Patrick's Day cards, Easter cards, Mothers and Fathers Day cards, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas cards - plus Valentines, Mothers and Fathers, and Christmas for each parent and us siblings for each other (not Mothers and Fathers Day for those, just Valentines and Christmas), plus everyone's birthday. (And I think one aunt, who we were closest to, got Valentines/Easter/Christmas.) Later on we dropped the less "cardy" holidays (St Patricks, Halloween, Thanksgiving) - maybe we only ever did those a couple of times, I'm not sure. Anyways, the default way to make cards was by cut-paper art, where you would cut shapes out of various colorful or decorative papers and then glue them onto folded construction paper in appealing arrangements. Hearts for Valentines, eggs for Easter, I think often stars for Christmas, or a tree with round ornaments. Occasionally we would mix it up and do some kind of painting, but mostly it was this paper-cutting. Because of the constant need for these decorative papers for cutting, we saved basically every scrap of interesting paper in a big box - every foil from a foil-lined envelope, pieces of old wrapping paper, flyers printed on pretty colors with blank backs - so that when you came up with an idea and a color scheme you could dig through and find whatever you were envisioning.
As an adult, particularly as a parent, I also keep basically every scrap of interesting paper in a big box. But, key difference, (almost) NOBODY IN MY HOUSE ACTUALLY DOES CUT-PAPER CRAFTS. This is just an inherited behavior out of context, almost a cargo cult of crafting. Ok, back when the kids were smaller, they sometimes would, especially if I sat them down and cut out shapes and was like "look just glue these on and we can call it a day", but they've both always had a strong preference for making cards by drawing pictures. (I mean, at least one of them would like to have a strong preference for never making cards at all, but will grudgingly do grandparent Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and birthdays at my urging, because I know my mom really cares about cards.) (Also I don't want to do cut-paper cards either! I just want to use cards as an excuse to paint bugs!)
I suppose some people would have stopped having a scrap-paper box years ago. Good for them! (Meant sincerely.) I have only recently started figuring out some angles of attack for interrogating these inherited habits and assumptions. Is all this paper truly useful, or is it perhaps aspirational or obsolete. As it turns out, I do still need *some* scrap paper, because I have been doing cut-paper stuff for making fancy numbers for the kids' birthday hats. But, like... that is probably eleven more hats (unless I'm sending birthday hat care packages to their colleges). There is only so much paper I can possibly need for eleven more fancy numbers. So for Disadvent 11 I am attempting to sort and drastically reduce the scrap-paper box. I've already found a number of actually-useful things that didn't belong in there, including gift bags, post-it notes, and the rest of my sandpaper (I just gave in and bought more). Hopefully I can get the rest of it down to a couple of sorted envelopes (maybe foils, colors, and patterns?). This is a disadvent in progress but just getting everything out of the box to see what was in there was a start.
When I was a kid we made a lot of cards. When I was really little we made cards for my grandparents for every holiday you can think of - Valentines cards, St Patrick's Day cards, Easter cards, Mothers and Fathers Day cards, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas cards - plus Valentines, Mothers and Fathers, and Christmas for each parent and us siblings for each other (not Mothers and Fathers Day for those, just Valentines and Christmas), plus everyone's birthday. (And I think one aunt, who we were closest to, got Valentines/Easter/Christmas.) Later on we dropped the less "cardy" holidays (St Patricks, Halloween, Thanksgiving) - maybe we only ever did those a couple of times, I'm not sure. Anyways, the default way to make cards was by cut-paper art, where you would cut shapes out of various colorful or decorative papers and then glue them onto folded construction paper in appealing arrangements. Hearts for Valentines, eggs for Easter, I think often stars for Christmas, or a tree with round ornaments. Occasionally we would mix it up and do some kind of painting, but mostly it was this paper-cutting. Because of the constant need for these decorative papers for cutting, we saved basically every scrap of interesting paper in a big box - every foil from a foil-lined envelope, pieces of old wrapping paper, flyers printed on pretty colors with blank backs - so that when you came up with an idea and a color scheme you could dig through and find whatever you were envisioning.
As an adult, particularly as a parent, I also keep basically every scrap of interesting paper in a big box. But, key difference, (almost) NOBODY IN MY HOUSE ACTUALLY DOES CUT-PAPER CRAFTS. This is just an inherited behavior out of context, almost a cargo cult of crafting. Ok, back when the kids were smaller, they sometimes would, especially if I sat them down and cut out shapes and was like "look just glue these on and we can call it a day", but they've both always had a strong preference for making cards by drawing pictures. (I mean, at least one of them would like to have a strong preference for never making cards at all, but will grudgingly do grandparent Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and birthdays at my urging, because I know my mom really cares about cards.) (Also I don't want to do cut-paper cards either! I just want to use cards as an excuse to paint bugs!)
I suppose some people would have stopped having a scrap-paper box years ago. Good for them! (Meant sincerely.) I have only recently started figuring out some angles of attack for interrogating these inherited habits and assumptions. Is all this paper truly useful, or is it perhaps aspirational or obsolete. As it turns out, I do still need *some* scrap paper, because I have been doing cut-paper stuff for making fancy numbers for the kids' birthday hats. But, like... that is probably eleven more hats (unless I'm sending birthday hat care packages to their colleges). There is only so much paper I can possibly need for eleven more fancy numbers. So for Disadvent 11 I am attempting to sort and drastically reduce the scrap-paper box. I've already found a number of actually-useful things that didn't belong in there, including gift bags, post-it notes, and the rest of my sandpaper (I just gave in and bought more). Hopefully I can get the rest of it down to a couple of sorted envelopes (maybe foils, colors, and patterns?). This is a disadvent in progress but just getting everything out of the box to see what was in there was a start.
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Date: 2023-12-12 03:29 am (UTC)Ask me how many decades it's been since I made a box. Actually, don't ask, just guess and keep that number to yourself. :/