Shared Knowledge

Have you ever taken on a challenge or a task that was new to you, and found yourself feeling strangely confident about maneuvering your way through it? Have you ever been in a situation you knew on a logical level was dangerous, and yet felt completely calm and in control?

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to catch a radio segment entitled Shared Knowledge. In this essay, Paddy Miller describes the theory that knowledge can be "stored" and accumulated from one generation to the next. She shares her personal experiences with Shared Knowledge, and also gives as an example the story of the Monarch butterfly, which I found particularly remarkable.

Upon hearing Ms. Miller talk about Shared Knowledge, I immediately thought of "women's work". Quilting, embroidery, knitting, mending, all involve a certain kind of manual dexterity, and yet we flow through the motions often thinking about something else all together, taken up by the rhythm. I know I've put down a knitting project for months, and then picked it up almost expecting that my hands would know what to do on their own-- and I've been surprised to find that they do. I've always loved making things, and certainly I am the crafty, artsy type. However, more and more I find myself almost overcome by a need to make things, and often it occurs to me that my grandmother and her mother before her, would have been forced to make these things. My family came to Canada from France, very poor, in the 1700s; their days were spent making things, a life, out of nothing. Sometimes wonder if it's just "in me", and in a sense how could it not be?

If you'd like to listen to or read this essay, it's available on the CBC website, here There are numerous essays, all inspiring, all airing as part of This I Believe