From the living room comes the voice of a reporter, saying something about the International Garden Show in Hamburg. I look up and see the back of a young boy, hunched over a work bench. He is putting tiny dabs of paint on a tiny figure. I realize that this is actually about Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg. My mind wanders. What a big, wonderful, sometimes sad, but mostly astonishingly positive influence German TV has on me! I watch Deutsche Welle for at least two hours every day, and have never felt that I am waisting time. For one thing, I knit teddy bears for the Mother Bear Project while I watch, and quite often I get inspired by what I see - to knit faster, to be more aware. To go places.
Whether it is a student's internship at a buffalo ranch, a meeting of rural women who cook for each other, with the best meal winning a prize, or an update on Michael Wigge's 2,473 kilometer trip across Germany in eighty days on a scooter, they all add to the enrichment of my life; they invite me to dream.
Being German, I love to observe the changing of the language. I have not lived in Germany since I was in my early twenties and many words are new, especially technical terms. Different dialects are noticeable too, and the use of colloquialisms on TV make me smile. And who could resist the clever jargon of politics? The words "Macht Mensch Merkel" for instance; I think it says what there is to say about the German Bundeskanzler, but it leaves open the question that asks: is she mighty or is she craving might?
The stories that deal with green energy, with global cooperation, and with travel of all sorts make me hopeful for the future. I especially adored a segment of the show " Job im Gepäck" (Job in Luggage) in which a German midwife spends time in Ghana and learns to make do with less without complaining. I am already looking forward to next month's essay on "Grüne Tomaten für Mao's Erben" (Green Tomatoes for Mao's Heirs) in which a German organic pioneer discusses animal welfare and farming in China.
Of course a report about problems that develop between locals and immigrants in Berlin over a new housing unit is sad, unsettling, and yet, more and more immigrants become politicians, gain influence in business, show their talents as artists.
World news, sports, culture, environment, globalization, business, science - I love it all.
Watching Deutsche Welle makes me want to dig deeper, research what I have seen, maybe even go to some of the places that speak to my interests.
For instance, I would love to visit the tiny garden world in Hamburg. 150,000 flowers, hand-made and glued in by volunteers and employees. Just like a real garden landscape, the area includes buildings, benches, watering cans, people, signs, and everything else one needs for a garden. You can see pictures of it on Pinterest if you search for Miniatur Wunderland, then pick the board "It's a small garden world."
I notice that the place has been repinned to several "Bucket List" boards. I am not alone.
Suddenly I am reminded that I once had glued my own little garden together for an Easter project. I had spray-painted a large piece of foam to look like garden soil, had glued plastic grasses and bushes and tiny plants into it, had added a small tree, some rocks, and a little shellac stream. Where is that poster, I wonder.
Which brings me back to the pictures on the table. The patterns. The flowers. The trees.
The Bears. I must finish these Bears by September 3, the 67th day of my Mandela Day Promise. I have knitted much more than 67 minutes a day, but there has to be a final accounting for the 67 days. How many bears have I made?
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