And, yes, dear heart, I’ve been remembering Dr. King, and the calendar isn’t the only reason!
As you may have heard me say, I remember being a 10 year old kid, out shopping with my dad and hearing, on the radio, that he had been killed. We lived in a Chicago suburb. And, at least in my little white girl eyes, the world exploded.
In this moment, though, I’m choosing to focus on what I – and many, many of us – learned from him. There’s a bit of information, though, that will help you follow along…
One of my contributions to the amazing group of women on the road known as Red Madonna is to share a writing prompt each Monday. So much my thing!!! In the context of our world, this past Monday’s prompt was an invitation to write about talking with kids about change.
And, yes… that sort of question is likely to prompt us to get more conscious of how we, ourselves, deal with change! I’ve been working on it all week!
Here’s the challenge… it helps a whole lot if we start helping them get used to the notion of change long before the magical powers of abstract thought kick in. For girls, that begins to happen around 12 or 13 years. For boys, closer to 16 or so. And it takes quite a while to get the hang of it.
In science-talk, the pre-frontal cortex, which is responsible for reasoning, planning, decision-making, and impulse control, isn’t fully developed until around age 25. Change, however, happens a whole lot sooner for most of us!
So… a week of intensely pondering – and dreaming about – talking with kids about change from the perspective of a Fiercely Compassionate Rebel Grandmother!
Kind of ironically, last night’s dream began with weather as an example. Wind. Rain. Ice. Snow. Seasons. Then, Grandmother Moon moved on to food! From tree to bud to apple to pie! And then, on to growing. The fun part and the awkward part! You get the drift…
There was another surprise in this adventure! Just before I fell asleep, I was reading a book called The Poet Prince, by Kathleen McGowan. There’s a quote of hers that I love:
History is not what happened. It’s what got written down.
There’s also a story, near the end of The Poet Prince, about the historical event I learned as the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther. A big door. And some notions of how the church might change and why lots of people thought that was a bad idea. Turns out this version of the story was written down by some people who knew a few more things than I learned along the way! Let’s just say things were a lot more complicated than good guys and bad guys and who got to tell the “real” stories about the Bible. And, yes, there was more than a bit of money and power going on behind the scenes… but that’s a story for another day.
For this day I’m sticking with change happens. We get to choose what to do with it… what it’s going to mean about who we are and what we cherish.
The photo at the top is a glimpse into my choosing. That room, generally known as “the breakfast room,” stuffed with most of the things in my studio, on their way to other rooms where they can work better together and help get more things that matter done.
The moving won’t solve all the challenges of our world. It will make it easier to be who we are becoming… The Legendary Husband and me. And that beats giving in!
Here’s one last thought for this moment…
Let no man pull you so low as to hate him! (The Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. 1956)
Thank you for being you!!!
ps… we Fiercely Compassionate Rebel Grandmothers are in charge of Hope!