the self, and the other
a student writes of making it through
challenge after challenge, of feeling good
about how well she dealt with the pandemic,
but now, as we are coming out of that gauntlet,
she feels anxiousness close to the surface,
the battle not over, just waged on different fields,
others write of friendships storm-tossed, losses,
after the storm passes in the night,
morning comes with new friends,
plus an absence of connections once vital,
adolescence can always shake the surety out of anyone,
add a pandemic with the care for the body
superseding the care for the psyche,
social distancing and Zoom to protect the body
while the soul could get lost,
students lament times of losing themselves,
of losing who they are, where they are,
of feeling lost, abandoned, unconnected,
now that we are back in person,
now that face masks and distancing are optional,
middle school students are drawn to friends,
like bees to flowers,
so needing the touch of another
that they wrap themselves physically around their friends,
young river otters, like many mammals, do the same
and find themselves physically with the close other,
our middle school community for two years
has denied itself a school dance,
physical safety the prime directive,
tonight the psychic safety is the prime directive,
and student after student makes their way to the dance,
feeling found again, both to themselves and to others,
our species needs others
so that we can know and embrace ourselves,
for if someone we care about,
cares about us enough to connect with us,
maybe we can reduce the volume of the self-doubting voices,
maybe then we can find joy in who we can be together,
maybe we can realize that we like ourselves
since those we care about show us they like us,
at the heart of who we are as humans
is a desire to assert,
plus a fear that we are but imposter,
we have the ability to live well
if given the chance and the support
to know that we can.
by Henry H. Walker
May 13, ‘22
No comments:
Post a Comment