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Here’s the deal, for those of us who have never had children we (the global we) are, for the most part, ignorant about who we are in relationship to the people around us in terms of age. We missed that phase of teenage truth when parents who are stout and hardy somehow survive having the mirror of who they are shoved into their face from every single angle possible about 70 million times a day. If we’re lucky, we may have a true and trusted friend who will ask us, “what the hell were you thinking” when we dash out in our latest fashion faux pas, but for the most part we tend to careen through our lives in utter unaware bliss that time is definitely traveling on and unlike the rings around the inside of a tree bark, our rings show!
It is with this tentative bliss that I embarked in the goal of returning to school to finish up a degree I had left in the dust many boys ago, to find out what the answers were for all those gaps in my understanding and to—and this is the one I so dearly love—-to “heal” bitter self-talk that had lodged itself inside of my mind to sing in concert with my ego and remind me of just who I am not.
Two years later and I’m just barely beginning to catch my breath and wonder where the hell this ride is going to take me. What I have learned and am pleasantly surprised by is how much I’ve enjoyed getting to know my fellow students. I think I may have had that blind prejudice, you know the kind where you’re blind to your opinions and feelings but you blatantly have them without even realizing it (think about what color “flesh” was meant for crayons and panty hose in the 60’s). I had been walking around with this head full of information and thoughts about people in between 18-26 that has been disproved by my experience with fellow students…at least as far as the ones I’ve met thus far.
It’s kind of weird though because I feel like I’ve been sent as a “representative” of my species (older than many of their parents…) to help create an “inter-generational” bridge with them that criss-crosses between multiple generations. I must admit that the “mom” in me has come out a couple of times though. I just can’t help but exclaim effusively when someone has created, done, said, or written something that I think is amazing for anyone to have done much less a young person. I suspect I get this way because I am so grateful that the people that I am mingling with in school are so much more awesome then what is portrayed out in the mid-zone of the world where huge gashes of people gather erroneous information.
I’m feeling pretty hopeful about what is possible for our planet because of these gals and guys. Below are some of the boards (sorry Ashton, my camera didn’t load yours yet!) that my fellow Creating Spaces students created. My camera phone does not do them justice, but if you squint you can see just a hint of some of the wonderful work that they created. Enjoy!
