encouragement

The weather has everyone grasping for support. We are defeated in body and mind with unending grey and the cold that eats through bones. It was not raining, but I came home dripping wet, and shivering. I forgot about the fish-bowl effect.

Our kitchen, the place so daunting at first, has become a haven for us. We alternate cooking, and mothering each other. Today, our "Tante" made Thai soup, someone cooked rice, bread was brought out and greens. Apples and honey for dessert. We all sit together- emerging from our rooms and long hours of study, to eat and laugh.

We are planning our theses... the advisor list was sent out. Ideas are laid out on the table as part of the meal. Not many people are researching children, let alone education. And so I am once again asked to visit one of their nations- don't I want to go to South East Asia? Well, of course I do... but I have this other calling, too. There will always be children in need...

A trip to Utrecht today for encouragement. A message from a supportive professor: there is no one with your focus here- please do it! The anthropological perspective is needed in observing these things...Yes, I heard the same thing in the U.S., but without the 'please do it' part. I am boldened by this, and know that as much as I would love to be an anthropologist of the assumed exotic, my heart is still with my kids.

ADHD, the rise in learning disabilities in the U.S. and Western nations, the dissolution of techniques that actually HELP these kids... yes, there is a need. Instead, a focus on standardization, and marginalization... the acknowledgement of 'disease/disorder' is increasing, but so is ambivalence, and a trend for bandaid answers and blanket medication. This work could put me out on the edge... voicing for something different.

So I listen to my friends who will study disease, health, well-being, in countries full of mystery to me. But I will keep moving forward, even if groping blindly, to try to fulfill my calling.

For it is my own history, and the reason I keep going- that there is a voice for difference- in education, in child ability, in personality and 'the social fit' of being-ness. I hope I can be a voice for this, and then create offerings- something usable for change. Something that makes a difference... I believe they term this "applied" medical anthropology. I hope it can be applied, beyond my own using. It is a good thing I am used to being on the edge.

But the edge is where one catches the most interesting glimpses of beyond... and discovers new territory to explore. I will get lost to find my way, then forge the path for others.

"It is the return of the individual to (the society) from the peaks he or she has travelled alone which serves to elevate that society to new heights. In this way individual growth and societal growth are interdependent, but it is always and inevitably lonely out on the growing edge." (M. Scott Peck, 1978)