The Conspiracy

I've had this blog for a while now, and it occurred to me that I've never explained where the name "The Scrapbook Conspiracy" comes from.

In 2004, my team at work comprised of Peg, Andi, Pam, and I, and our supervisor, Sue (a different Sue). Peg, Andi, Pam and I were scrapbookers, Sue was not. There were times that three or four of us would attend the same scrapbooking retreats. So occasionally all of us would ask for the same random Friday off. In one team meeting, Sue was reviewing our upcoming schedules and if I remember correctly we all had the same Friday off. She looked at us and said,

"Is this one of your Scrapbook Conspiracies?"

Our team of four has gone in four separate directions now, but we all still scrapbook.

The word conspiracy is interesting because in the dictionary, all of its definitions imply nefarious purposes and evil deeds. But to conspire can be positive or negative, taking its origins from a latin word meaning to act in harmony. Scrapbooking has a lot of harmony to it; there is harmony in color and texture, and when I scrapbook I combine the past and the present, and my goal is to preserve the memories for the future.

Another piece of the conspiracy is knowing that, although the scrapbook pages in and of themselves are valuable to their audience, the other secret behind scrapbooking is that I love the social outlet of it. Some people play bunco; other people join clubs; I scrapbook.

Long live the conspiracy.