Christine, Wondering

Random Musings of a Human Becoming

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Freedom

Sorry for the three-day hiatus in posting - I worked Saturday and Monday, and stayed at S's house in the meantime, so I haven't been near a computer.

Various news from the weekend . . .

For the first time since I was sixteen years old, Australia has a new prime minister. THANK THE LORD! Racist, sexist, bigoted, megalomaniac, money-is-everything John Howard is gone, and Labor are back in power. There's going to be changes, and no doubt some of them will be a bit scary. But our new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has already said that he will say sorry to victims of the Stolen Generation in his first term. It's that kind of thing that makes me incredibly proud to be a Labor Party member and voter.

Not only did John Howard's Liberals (who are really conservatives) lose the election, but John Howard himself failed to retain his electorate, Bennelong - losing to a former television presenter who was the Labor candidate. That is most satisfactory ownage  I loathe what Howard has done to my beloved Australia and I'm ever so glad he's gone.

*

On Saturday night I went to the reunion for the second of my three high schools. At this high school I was very unpopular – not disliked exactly, just generally ignored – and I was very unhappy there for most of the time. I went to the reunion with some trepidation, expecting to struggle to find anyone to talk to, or even who remembered me. Because I’d felt so disconnected from the rest of the cohort, I felt that the others of that year might even feel that I had no right to be at the reunion since there was no one I would be expected to want to reunite with.

As usual, my fears were totally ungrounded. I was welcomed, interrogated, included, and even found myself getting along extremely well with some very unlikely people. It was a very special evening and an incredibly powerful healing process. What I discovered was that they didn’t remember that I’d been unpopular. They remembered that I’d been there with them through three very important years in our lives. They’d mostly forgotten that I was shy, quiet, awkward and depressive at the time, and instead remembered me as a witness to their own formative years. A few even remembered that I’d been passionate about archaeology and were thoroughly delighted to hear that I’d made it to being one, even if it was only for a while.

I can thoroughly recommend 10-year high school reunions as a form of therapy, folks. Going to that reunion has empowered me to put so many little anxieties and insecurities to rest. It feels good

I think that's all for now. Today is devoted to slacking off and doing nothing except things that I want to do, before getting into some serious tidying and errand-running tomorrow (I can't go anywhere today anyway, I woke up to discover that 9yo brother had been casually left with me as he's coughing too much to go to school!). I intend to write a bit, play the flute a bit, and talk to my cat a lot. Nothing that I don't want to do!

1 comments:

I'm very happy for you - this couldn't happen to a better person. Keep up the good work - and that necklace is lovely! I love jade.
 

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