Over the last years, I have repeatedly heard artists indicate that one of their greatest needs is to “tap into a network” of creative people.
The word net comes from an Old English word probably evolved from the Latin word that meant to knot or bind. Interestingly, the derivation of the same word led to the word denouement, or the untying of a literary plot.
As a fiber enthusiast, I immediately think of knitting, crocheting, or weaving when hearing the word net. However, in knitting one continuous cord is looped and reattached. (There is also the unbinding that may happen to correct a mistake!) In weaving, the warp provides the foundation strands tightened onto the loom, with the weft or crosspieces woven in and out of the warp.
However, in one style of net-making, the fisherman lays out a crosshatch of rope pieces. The net is shaped as a piece of rope is knotted into the middle of the piece before it. Then a new piece of rope is knotted into the middle of each “leg” of the piece just knotted. The knotted rope lengths interlock, creating a network that sometimes can stretch out for up to a mile.
A human network is similar. However, too often in the human network, the individual looks only at what they can gain from the network. They overlook what they have to give. They forget that just as they bind themselves into a network, they will need to allow being joined to. If there is no such reciprocal action, there will be no resulting network.
The “magic” of the network comes not from something that each strand gets individually, but from the strength resulting in the whole net, in what is given to others.
The same is true of the human network that stretches across both space and time.
© 2014 E.L. Kittredge