This past week, I read an article, “Struggle for Smarts? How Eastern and Western Cultures Tackle Learning.” One interesting difference is how the role of struggle is viewed in each culture.
While in Western cultures, struggle is often viewed as an indication of intellectual weakness, in Eastern cultures, struggle is seen as a necessary component of learning.
If the Eastern vision of the value of struggle is true, then I am set to learn a whole heck of a lot after my Friday crochet endeavors.
Nothing I touched went quite as I had planned. One of my struggles was with the red and white spiral cookie in the upper left hand panel.
I re-did so many elements of the cookie so many times, I can’t provide an accurate accounting, but despite the difficulties, I persisted until (at long last), I had a spiral cookie that looked like the other spiral cookie I had made, with a border that allowed it to fit well with the other squares in the same panel:

I’m not altogether certain exactly what it is I learned from this particular crochet trial, but I know that in the next day, the next, week, or the next month, the lesson will be revealed to me.
Now, for the week in review!
Sunday, March 3

A kitty litter mat in need of a border
Monday, March 4

I finish the kitty litter cat mat and move foward with the cookie-dough-ku
Tuesday, March 5

Wednesday, March 6

I start to piece together the cookie-dough-ku
Thursday, March 7
