Take My Idea, Please

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for?"
--Robert Browning

My imagination has a large reach. It has spent multiple millions remodeling and adding on to my home, refurbishing a historical church in my neighborhood, and building a vacation home. Not to mention the feral cat reserve.

Of course, financial reality keeps all of these dreams entirely in the world of imagination.

My imagination surpasses my physical abilities too. I have yard work, house work, and wool work plans that are made with the best of intentions, but never come to pass.

The idea I want to give away today is for a podcast. I currently create a short weekly poetry podcast (this week it's about the power of small moments of beauty-- listen here.) and this blog. Although neither look like a big deal, it is amazing how difficult it is sometimes to meet my own self-imposed deadlines. I hoped that after I worked on my poetry podcast for a while and learned how it was done, I could tackle something bigger. Well, I've published nine episodes and it is getting easier. I can record, edit, and publish fairly smoothly. I also know that my short podcast, based mostly on information already in my head, is probably the best I'll ever be able to do.

Of course the podcast of my imagination is probably too big for any one person. What I'd love to create, but love more just to listen to, is a project I would call "Beyond Cowboys and Indians: History of the Intermountain West." There is so much amazing history in this part of the country and I know it would be fantastic to share it in podcast form.

Daughters of the Utah Pioneers has inspired a lot of this interest. Every month I hear an hour-long lesson full of stories of bravery, intelligence, and humor. These stories need a larger audience. And they are just a tiny part of our great story--the Mormon settlers. There are also all the stories of Native Americans going back more than ten thousand years, plus miners, soldiers, trappers, explorers, and so many more people who came to make a life in this beautiful, but often challenging, part of the country.

A model for what I would like to do is the podcast called "Ben Franklin's World," hosted by Liz Covart. Each week, the interviews an expert about Colonial America.

There are plenty such experts here. A few weeks ago, I talked to a woman at the Utah Museum of Natural History who is working on a doctorate on anthropology. She was measuring and studying moccasins left in caves by the Great Salt Lake about 10,000 years ago. We have college professors, museum directors, tribal leaders, authors, and many knowledgeable amateur historians with great stories to tell.

A foundation funds and produces "Ben Franklin's World," and that would be the best course for this podcast of my dreams. If you are an ambitious influencer who could get this done or inspire someone else to do so, go for it. I don't even need credit for imagining the idea.

THE KNITTING

My sweater has been within a couple hours of finished for a week now. I broke my long needles, so the stitches are squished together and the sweater is hard to photograph. My dyed yarn is in progress toward becoming a skirt and my dyed fiber is being turned into yarn. I don't feel like I've been working on wool stuff much lately, but apparently, I'm wrong. Of course you can see more of my work in my shop.