Well, it's a holiday week in the US, and my readers need a break, and my wife finally persuaded me to look at what she was laughing at so uproariously, even though it was a weblog titled "Yarn Harlot" and, unlike my wife, I am not a knitter. Surely, I thought, this is not for me.
But, I thought reviewing Michael Moore's new movie "Sicko" and the state of US health care is too grim for a relaxing holiday weekend. I'll leave that till next week sometime.
Anyway, it turns out, the author, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, is more a teller of yarns and Garrison Keillor (A Prarie Home Companion) type tales with some kind of lasting lesson in them, whether they have to do with actual knitting or not. They tell us a lot about life, in a fun and memorable way.
They're viral, and spread by word of mouth, far better than advertising, and cheaper.
She, and the site are immensely popular, with a huge number of regular readers and 250-400 comments a day. She came to town here to give a talk, and the library thought, well, "yarn", we'll put her in a room that seats 30. That got quickly overturned, and about 300 people showed up to try to fit in a room that seats 150. People had to wait 4 hours because her flight was delayed, and they fought to save their seats.
You'd have thought she was giving away iPhones.
Anyway, I am putting a permanent link on this weblog to hers. The power of narrative to convey a message is best shown by example, and she is a fantastic example.
Here's the story that was my "tipping point" - a simple story titled "the way things are" , telling about the day she got a new stove, and what happened with the movers. It's a stitch. It's worth reading. It's worth sharing with friends.
And for public health advocates, it's worth analyzing to see what elements she puts together that make her stories so engrossing and fun and helpful.
(Oh, the photo above is one she had up of her recent lecture on yarn in Alaska, and the typical completely overflowing room she gets to the total amazement of libraries, most academics, etc. There's a lesson there on how to reach people and "knit them together" through the power of "yarn.")
Here is a comment someone made on that post about stoves, that shows how a discussion can lead to some valuable condensing of experience into useful insight.
Sometimes, less is more.
Wade
