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Once upon a time there was a new Elephant – an Elephant’s Child – who was full of ‘satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions. He asked questions about everything that he saw, or heard, or felt, or smelt, or touched, and all his uncles and his aunts spanked him. And still he was full of ‘satiable curtiosity! |
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Rudyard Kipling, “The Elephant’s Child”, Just So Stories |
One of the games often played in “getting to know each other” settings is to choose which literary character you most resemble. No question – I am the Elephant’s Child.
My formal education took almost ten years to complete (part-time) because I kept finding classes I wanted to take and new things I wanted to learn about. My academic advisor despaired of ever nudging me to take enough courses in one subject to graduate. By the time I did finally complete the requirements, I had a major in geology, a minor in psychology, and course work sufficient for minors in statistics, mathematics, and computer science. I was having so much fun taking classes that I then went on to graduate school. The graduate school advisors weren’t quite so amenable to my ‘satiable curtiosity, however – so I never finished that MS which would have been in advanced statistics... or maybe economics... or possibly the business school would have been best?
.... ‘Satiable curtiosity.
I worked in mining engineering, hydrology, and civil engineering for 15 years. By then, my left brain was fully saturated and my creative right brain, despite years of self-directed study in art, was hungering for more sights to see. So like the Elephant’s Child, I set out “a little warm but not at all astonished, eating melons,” to convince a major publisher that they needed an engineer to write and edit books about quilting and sewing.
.... ‘Satiable curtiosity.
I had been sewing since I was seven and making quilts since the mid-1970s. Although I was very very good at both, I didn’t follow directions very well, always wanting to know what lay beyond the Limpopo River, and always getting spanked. The publisher wanted books about traditional quilts. I wanted to celebrate art quilts. So after six years of writing books, the Elephant’s Child stepped back most politely, because she did not wish to be spanked again, and set off on a solitary journey to explore the land beyond the horizon.
.... ‘Satiable curtiosity.
This journey of mine has a beginning, and it has many many side jaunts, but it always goes in the direction my curiosity pulls me. I am a storyteller – for I have traveled miles and seen many people and many things. I am a teacher – I know what lies beyond the river and which melons are good to eat and why you shouldn't ask the Crocodile what he has for dinner. I am an artist – I can tell my stories in fabric and paint and thread, and I can make you laugh and make you think and give you wings to fly.
.... ‘Satiable curiosity.
I am the Elephant’s Child.
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Page last updated Feb 16, 2007