Creative Thinking on Speed, Saved by Knitting

The human brain at its very most creative is that of the mother whose child is missing or in danger. At moments like that, the mother can think up the worst possible scenarios and even worse variations at an incredible rate of speed and with more gore than the nastiest horror movie or violent action drama. When you are powerless to do anything to help them, all you are left with is a racing and inventive and terrified mind. Thus, the four long hours that my son was in surgery yesterday were . . . long. Very long. With my brain unable to concentrate on reading yet too willing to invent reasons to worry to allow just sitting, knitting may have saved lives or sanity. Knitting my skinny purple scarf out of textured hand-dyed purple merino wool yarn kept me from imagining worse worst case scenarios and it was something I could concentrate on enough to feel like I was accomplishing something. Surgery was declared a success and the boy is recovering quickly and the mother is . . . napping the day away!