February 2021 - Books that have inspired the Tunnel Journey
The design of quilts often has curious origins. My current project has involved a lot of reflection on tunnels.
We routinely drive through tunnels without much of a thought. But have you ever noticed that a feeling of relief comes over you when the light at the far end is sighted, and you know for certain that you will make it through? It’s a bit of sparkle that comes unbidden from somewhere deep in our psyche.
We often casually use the expression “the light at the end of the tunnel” without really digging into its meaning. Tunnels are a deep metaphor for trouble in our lives, and how we must strive/endure/cope until that stressful situation comes to some kind of resolution. The current pandemic has been a globally shared tunnel for over a year now. Many exit routes are offered up; at this moment, all are tantalizingly beyond our grasp. But, slowly, we are making our way toward those exits.
Mired in various tunnels over the years, I have often turned to the distraction of fiction and stories. Their characters easily populated my overactive imagination as a child. These fictional friends often allowed me to find a bit of respite while battling my way out of a tunnel - which in my younger days was usually something monumental - like having my skipping rope stolen right out of my hands. Stories were a great place to wait it out, and looking back, I can see many covert lessons in those stories. Morals, values, aspirations, humor – they were all there, carving out new ways of being, tweaking my character as I empathized with the woes of Charlie Brown, shared the lonely triumphs of Superman, saw my own childish anguish diminish as Rudolph’s imperfection was finally recognized as an essential save-the-day asset.
Unknowingly, I have spent a lifetime under the influence of fictional characters who not only held my hand, but handed me the necessary tools I needed to negotiate the unexpected tunnels of life. And as I take a step back to soak in the big picture, I can see what stitches our lives together. It’s the stories. They become the framework for how our lives unfold as they weave in and out of the stories of those we encounter. Some stories intersect for a paragraph, some for a chapter, and some are spread across the encyclopedic volumes that stack up behind us over the decades. Each story has a beginning, and an ending, and if we are really lucky, a lesson or two that will propel us forward.
So, when challenged at our quilt guild to come up with a “light at the end of the tunnel” quilt, I went down a few tunnels, ultimately deciding to yield centre stage to my fictional friends and mentors who have journeyed the unanticipated tunnels with me over the years. The next post details the beginning of this journey.
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