A Wine Editor and a White Feather…

I just read on Facebook:

That moment you realize an email you sent, which declared your credentials as an editor, contains a typo.

This kind of realization always brings me back to my Happy Daze, and how I learned to ease up on myself and – more importantly – others.

EARLY 1970s: I was professionally creating really intricate bead work… One day, my sister Merry walked into my mother’s house (where I was also visiting) with someone that she had just met. Her new friend’s name was Wally White Feather. Wally was from a South Dakota Sioux tribe (Nemo, SD). This Native American was amazed at my bead work (Caucasian et al, I mean, com’mon – how many of us are there that take the time to really learn the craft, although the 1960’s did breed a good crop of us)?

She immediately gave four things to me:

1. This image of her, so I’d never forget her.
2. A book called “Collections of Dakota Sioux Designs” that her grandmother Mabel A. Rooks had complied and personally signed for her.. Mabel inscribed it for her, “To Wally Feather by Grandmother.” (I still cherish and have it.)
3. Two strands of loomed bead work that were originally sewn onto the denim pant legs of her jeans. (I had just seen Sonny and Cher on the cover of “People” magazine, both wearing these same exact beads down the arms of their jean jackets.)
4. A legend: In all their bead work, the Sioux leave one error, because there’s no real perfection in life. (This is where the spirit of the work is able to enter and exit the piece of work.)

I’d love to re-find Wally. Can you find her mistake?

My mistake was not holding onto her, just for the fun of it. We all make mistakes.