There are quilt patterns that some people steer clear of. Often, the reason is about bias. Lone stars, and One Block Wonders, involve shapes that inevitably end up landing on the diagonal. Trapezoids and triangles do this. When the threads are limited to being horizontal and vertical, everyone gets along. But once bias comes into play, things get wonky. Pieces that should match, become distorted. 

 

I am currently wrangling one of these. Remembering just how stressful it can be to tame those edges made me want to hurl the quilt to the floor and start a Log Cabin. But instead I took a break, turned on some Bach, and got a snack. There is no rush, and lowering my heart rate helped. 

 

Fashion designers understand fabric, and use it to their advantage. The ripple of a silk skirt owes its beauty in part to bias. A pair of scrubs is utilitarian in the OR, where flat cotton is called for. But when you want to shimmer, or dance, you figure out how to deal with bias. 

 

It fascinates me that this word has stretched to encompass how we wear facts. A mental leaning can swerve rather than shoot straight. Friends that, by rights, ought to get along, don't. 

 

Sometimes being with people whose ideology takes a different slant than my own, makes things wonky. If I can resist tossing the relationship down on the floor and stomping off, my mind can stretch without breaking.