Learning about someone completely different
Like everyone, there are lots of characteristics, cultural artifacts, and experiences that are deeply familiar to me. I know what it’s like to be male, to be a sibling in a large family, to have a dog companion throughout his life, to watch a parent die. But then there are things that are wholly outside my experience. I am not female, let alone pregnant, let alone the biological mother of a child I delivered naturally. I mention all of this because it’s a big reason why I read this blog. (Another reason is that the blog is hilarious.)
In her latest entry, Heather Armstrong concluded her long (three-part) story of the birth of their second child. She’s a great storyteller, and she opens up for me a world that I don’t know. Reading the story of someone else–someone radically different (female, mother) yet also similar (same language, similar U.S. culture, and, well, human!) doesn’t just make me a better therapist. It reminds me that I’m just one person in a world of breathtaking diversity and beauty.
