Full Circles, Overlapping Lives
We are all immigrants. Every newborn is an immigrant and every adult remains an immigrant as the world they presently live in is not like the one into which they were born. It, the world, is always changing. Thus, so are we.
We continue to need to acquire new skills and knowledge to navigate the landscape; to learn how to survive in our ever changing worlds. If we were to have passports stamped along the way we would find our life’s journey would take us to many unexpected places. But if we are measuring our life by the “journey”, it’s only a metaphor and will never really prepare us for the arrival at whatever that place may be.
Mary Catherine Bateson takes us into a world where we are all strangers even when we are familiar in our places. We are strangers even to ourselves. We may reflect back to a time and place where we believed we experienced better times and a ‘kinder, gentler’ time, but this nostalgia is delusory. We try to forget the bad stuff and only focus on that which we have convinced ourselves was worth remembering.
As I read, and reread several chapters, I couldn’t help but reflect back on a column I wrote (I have been a newspaper columnist for 4 years) called “Traveling Thru.” I imagined the conversations between the students and the elders and I felt compelled to share with you, my group, where my head went a time or two.
Travelin’ Thru
By Nikki Darling-Kuria
The Frederick News Post
February, 2005
If life really does imitate art we might have something to look forward to. Just look at this year’s Academy Awards. By exchanging their commercial blockbuster movies for message films, Hollywood decided to take some risks.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock the last few weeks, you may have noticed that this year Hollywood decided to take the road less traveled. And if you have watched any of these films you will know it has made all the difference.
I saw the Best Picture “Crash” last summer...