It’s the midpoint of December.
By rights, there should be several inches, perhaps even a foot or two of snow on the ground; we should be bundling up in coats and hats and scarves and gloves against the seasonal cold.
It should look and feel festive, a time for catching snowflakes on your tongue, and for coffee by a roaring indoor fire.
We have the coffee, but precious little else. It’s hard to get into the spirit of the winter holidays when the weather is so stubbornly warm and dry and deadly.
A look outside the window tells the story: pale blue skies webbed with paler gray-white, none of it clouds but merely contrails from all the invasive air traffic, adding a new layer of pollution even as they vacuum what tiny amounts of moisture might still be in the air. Air traffic deepens drought conditions courtesy of exactly this phenomenon; the problem with contrails has never been so-called “chemtrails,” but rather, their deadly warming and drying effects upon the planet.
Beneath them is an earth beneath a threadbare blanket of dirty, pale gray-gold, not so much at rest now. Winter slumber is being denied our small world here, and just as with our own human bodies, it’s possible to draw a direct line of causation between a lack of rest and worsening illness and injury.
Human nature is, of course, famously wont to ignore the evidence before its very eyes, no matter how clear and insistent. But these days, the facts are laid out before us in obvious and inescapable form, and the refusal to perceive and then act upon them is a transgression of cosmic proportions now. We know what needs to be done; humanity collectively simply does not want to do it, and so, not content with the sins of ignoring it, compounds the crime by waging constant campaigns of disinformation, propaganda, outright and deadly lies.
Which leaves it to us as individuals to do our part. It’s very much harder than it needs to be, thanks not merely to the lack of institutional and political support but to the efforts of those in control of those systems and structures deliberately to prevent us all from doing our part.
But if the world as a political entity needs our resistance now, the earth as a planet, as our only home and means of survival, needs it even more.
The challenge then becomes how to create such change, meaningfully and effectually, on such a small scale. It becomes a matter of strategy, of choosing our targets carefully, of drawing back for perfect aim so that our arrows fly true. And we are fortunate, because we have the examples set by our ancestors to guide us, historical ways of navigating the world generally, and our own close environments specifically, in ways that ensure resistance and survival simultaneously.
That’s perhaps at no time more important than now, in winter. These are the hard days, hours of daylight increasingly short, nights long and dark amid a cold that cuts bone-deep. In this place, situated as we are at an elevation of nearly eight thousand feet, with all the harsh conditions that are a part of both desert and alpine environments? These days, and nights especially, can be deadly in the most literal of ways. And so navigating our current circumstances becomes a matter of ensuring not just the safety of land and air and waters, but of ourselves, and of doing so in ways that abandon none of our relatives, human and otherwise.
“Perfect aim” suddenly seems daunting indeed.
But it can be done; it simply requires us to work at it. But we have to commit to it, and sometimes, overcoming despair, apathy, fear, hopelessness to make that recommitment is the hardest step of all.
Today’s featured work reminds us why it matters. It’s a symbol of the aim that is part of its name, yes, but also of the path before us, reminding us that no matter how dark the world seems, there is always a way; we simply have to commit to the work of traveling it. From its description in the Pins Gallery here on the site:
Perfect Aim Lapel Pin
Perfect aim requires practice, skill, and good aerodynamics. This lapel/shawl pin by Wings has them all, in beautifully saw-cut freehand form. The pin is extra-long, making it perfect for suit jackets, coats, or to hold warm shawl ends together, and has two separate pin assemblies soldered securely to the reverse, one at the top and one near the bottom. The pin itself is formed of a single length of sterling silver pattern wire in a geometric Art Deco braided pattern and of a decently heavy, solid gauge. The arrowhead, with flanged rear points, and the fletched opposite end, are all saw-cut freehand from the same piece, incorporating the edges of the braided ribbon-like accents along the edges of each. Pin is 4.5″ long by just over 1/4″ wide (dimensions approximate). Other views shown above, below, and at the link.
Sterling silver
$525 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Wings almost never genders his work, intending it to be worn by and accessible to everyone [the one exception, in name only, is his series known as The Warrior Woman, first created for and in honor of his mother, which is why the gender identity is explicit]. Everything else, even those works with seemingly masculine or feminine names [often named in honor of particular spirit beings] are meant to be worn by anyone.
But occasionally, he creates something so clearly meant for all that there’s no mistaking it. This is one such work: a pin of bold but elegant proportions, one described as a lapel pin but suitable for shirts, jackets, coats, scarves, shawls, nearly any style of dress. It works for accessories, too — hats, bags, even riding gear, such as a horse’s bridle or blanket.
And it fits beautifully, courtesy of the twinned pin assemblies on the reverse, as shown immediately above. One of the bedeviling aspects of larger pins is the way in which their size or weight is susceptible to gravity’s force; how often have you seen a beautiful pin on a beautiful item of clothing, yet its design is unclear because its own weight has tipped it over, sometimes stretching or tearing fabric in the process? This avoids that problem by distributing its weight [although it’s lightweight generally] and mass evenly.
Of course, the aspect that I find most striking about this piece is the freehand cutwork. The silver itself is sterling silver pattern wire of a decently heavy gauge, commercially formed by pouring ingot into industrial-sized molds, cooling and releasing them, then cutting them to length, usually measured in feet.
This particular design has a distinctly Art Deco feel to it — more, an animating spirit of the Indigenous Art Deco styles of a century ago. The scored, ridged lines and the criss-crossing accents speak of an architectural geometry popular a hundred years ago . . . and of the processes of weaving and braiding that are so much part and parcel of our peoples’ traditional ways.
Forming such a pattern into the shape of an equally traditional item, at once tool and weapon, agent of sustenance and of survival, seems somehow prophetically apt now.
Aim is a funny thing. Sometimes, we think we know what’s needed, and we aim for it . . . only to fall short, fly long, or drift off the side entirely. It’s easy to assume that the error was ours, a lack of talent or skill or commitment. But it can be easy to become too wrapped up in trying to correct that which is, or at least should be, uncorrectable — and we risk losing the opportunity we have been granted by becoming consumed with our first target, rather than looking to see whether our first landing was indeed a better option.
Sometimes, it’s Spirit saving us from ourselves.
The outside world loves the term “resilience,” because those in authority and control believes it absolves them from any and all responsibility. It becomes instead a convenient bludgeon for those they harm, the implication being that their inability to survive and thrive amid such harm is an indicator of personal inadequacy, of weakness and laziness and more deadly ideas, those that would paint certain populations, human and otherwise, as disposable. We have seen this before. We are seeing it now.
And so it becomes all the more important to refuse to be a target of the world’s aim [and aims], while refining our own. Sometimes aim is less about hitting a target than about finding the right direction, and following it. We need to be aware of what points the way for us now.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
