Back to Old-School!

This month at the ole’ Blog Carnival** we’re talking about “Back to School”.  Somewhere we look a wrong turn in the hallway because…we never left school in the first place. It’s all learning all the time at 2Roses’. It’s part and parcel of this modern life where constant and rapid change is the norm. We suspect that all of you live in this world too – except those of you who don’t.

“Old School” in many cases simply means a “tradition” of sorts. In our fast paced world, this can be taken to mean last week’s traditions as opposed to what’s happening NOW. Much grinding of the gears happens in that space, where old-world tradition (more than two weeks ago) intersects with 21^st century sensibilities. Take our own particular brand of madness, handmade jewelry, for example. “Handmade!?”, folks respond blankly when presented with this fact along with the object. Scrolling text then appears across their forehead….”What does that mean? ….People make stuff by hand?....Why?....Holy shit, how much?”

But wait, it gets better. We are not alone in our handmade-keeping-traditions-alive romantic economically delusional pursuits. There are people engaged in making armor, and flint knapped arrowheads and, we are quite certain if you look around long enough, buggy whips. Now, we totally get armor and flint knapped arrowheads. These are going to be big sellers when the apocalypse comes. But buggy whips!? Seriously!!!??

Which brings us to the point of going back to old-school. Just how old an old-school are we talking about. After all, traditions can go back…as far back as…uhmm, like the first Christmas or something. Anyway, the question is what happens when your old-school traditions collide with my old-school traditions. Well, first off… you’re wrong. I think we can all agree on that.  

Or maybe there is some sort of old-school tradition that the oldest tradition wins. For example, here is how it works in real life: A friend makes handmade jewelry. BAM! Right off the bat, she has about 10,000 years of old-school tradition in the bank. Trump that!

In walks a customer who wants a ring. Not just any ring. This ring: "I want my ring to be made of ethically mined and fair traded traditional diamond solitaire, recycled and sustainable gold and while it's being made, I don't want any chemical or environmental toxins to be used or come in contact with the process AND since I am not really a "consumer" I would like to pay you with the organic fruits and vegetables I grow on my solar powered farm."

Whoa – serious contender – barter is old-old school going back to before Dynotopia and when Benjamin Franklin invented money. The request backed our friend up for a moment and you could see scrolling text appear across her forehead.….”What does that mean? ….People trade vegetables for diamonds & gold?....Why?....Holy shit, that’s a lot of vegetables?”

The customer ended up getting a tattoo instead, and that’s how you get learned in old-school.

** Blog Carnival is a monthly feature of Etsy Metal Team in which members share opinions and perspectives on a common topic which are different from ours …and therefore wrong.