Many, many people are scared to death of math. As a child, I was never scared of math, but embraced it. I had many classes in math, a lot of my undergraduate degree centered around math, so I have never understood people's fear of math - not fully.
But computers - well - some things about computers completely intimidates me. I don't want to learn about putting together a computer, I don't want to learn about networking and routers, and other things. I just want to have my computer the way it is and the way it works and I don't want to troubleshoot when things go wrong with it. I let the stupid things intimidate me.
And I have to think that is how other people feel about math. Maybe about science too. The palms sweat, and when people are explaining things to you - things you probably could understand if you sat and let them congeal in your mind - it sounds like Charlie Brown's teachers when people start up about math - wah waaah, wah ...
No matter what people shut down their brain and stop and don't let the things that are bothering them in. A lot of time it is a matter of caring. I know I don't have to troubleshoot my computer when it goes down - I don't care to work on it.
How does this relate to quilting? I know that there are subjects people don't care about - just shut themselves down about and never push themselves to learn.
I was inspired lately by a lady in my applique class. She was in my applique class and she had the distinct reason of attending so that she could figure out if she could like applique. Previous to this experience she didn't like applique. At the end of the class she was talking about buying a kit that had a lot of applique in it. She faced her fears and didn't let the thing intimidate her, and in the end enjoyed it.
But the point is, that people can get stuck - stuck with the math of quilting, stuck with some new aspect they don't know about and refuse to learn about because they are intimidated by it. Maybe for one quilter it's applique, for the other its free motion quilting, the other its piecing curves, or mitered corners. The best thing to do is to try to figure out more about it, so you can find out if you are intimidated by the technique because you don't perceive you are good at it, or you just don't like something. Trying to do the technique - at least once - should also be necessary. Then the hypothesis of "I can't do this" can at least be tested!
Maybe you'll never be the one who makes the best crazy quilts, but you'll have tried it and then know you don't like it. Or maybe that technique will open the doors to other techniques, which in turn will lead you to something you do like.
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