No Strings

How many of you just added the word “attached” to the end of that title?  I know my mind wants to, but for today’s Madhouse post I am going to take this in a different direction.  What if we all imagine, for a second, the literal ramifications of No Strings?
For me this thought almost immediately incites panic.  No Strings!?!  What will I do with my hands?  You see, I spend a considerable amount of time each week knitting and sewing.  Keeping my hands busy is what I do to keep myself sane…it’s not that I don’t love staying home with my children, it’s just that sometimes it doesn’t feel as though I am accomplishing anything.  I run them around to school and activities, try to keep the house on the honest side of the clean/disgusting boundary, and cook three or more times per day.  Sometimes it feels like treading water, rather than swiftly cutting through it.  On the days when it all feels like stagnation, the act of taking thread, yarn, and fabric (all of which are forms of string, no?) and making something new and useful from them helps me feel accomplished.  If there were no strings there would be no sewing, no knitting, no inner peace in my days. 
From there my thoughts head to my husband, my brother, and many of our friends friends – a musical bunch of people that we know and love.  No Strings has huge ramifications for that crew as well.  No Strings means no piano, no guitar, no bass, no orchestra, no music.  Where would all of us be without music?  How many times per day do you reach for your ipod, CDs, or car radio, looking for something to move you, to make your day shine brighter or just to sing at the top of your lungs because it feels good? 
And what about the smaller odds and ends? 
No rope for rock climbing and clotheslines, for tying your boat to the dock.  No string for kite flying or tying up a good roast.  No twine for mending, no fabric to clothe ourselves, nothing with which to make an area rug or carpet.  No curtains, pillows, or blankets.  Nothing to tie the Christmas tree to the roof of your car, nothing to tie your shoes.  No primitive fishing line.  No rigging for sails, nothing to hang our wind chimes. 
No Strings would be catastrophic.
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When I was a little kid my friend, Sarah, lived around the corner from my Grandparents’ house.  We spent much of our childhood climbing trees and scraping knees and trying to learn how to skateboard and playing in the playhouse her dad built in their backyard.  We also liked to build things, and our two favorite tools for building were duct tape and string.  We joke, to this day, about how with duct tape and a ball of twine we could build just about anything, and after taking a closer look at the idea of No Strings, I think we were on to something. 
So much of what we consider civilized and comfortable has a relationship to string, something that few of us probably think about.  And that is Madhouse Wednesday.