Categories: uncategorized
Date: 09 September 2006 11:32:44
One of the themes of A Story to Live By by Kathy Galloway which I blogged about a few days ago is the way our lives can be seen as maps which are shaped by a mixture of individual and communal experiences, shaped by a range of factors including culture, history, geography and religion to name a few. It's made me stop and think, if people were to look at my map what would they see?
I'm not going to share it all, and I'm not going to just rehash what I've written before on this blog - particularly in the snapshots I gave here going on to the beginning entries in February , but I am going to give you a few more pictures of the map and reflect on how they have been shaped. So here we are, off on another mini-biographical series.
The map today sees me in the centre of my map with Third Party by my side, living in a flat by the sea in the South East of England. We are wearing the fashions of a popular chain store which provides reasonably priced clothing for a range of ages.
Two simple sentences, but they involve so much more than they convey.
Having Third Party by my side, but no significant other shows that here is a lone parent and her only child. There is a story behind that, which I covered in the snapshots at the beginning of the year, but that story then becomes related to the nature of family in the society within which I live and the history of marriage, divorce, and child rearing in that culture & indeed the sub-culture which I inhabit.
I live in a flat by the sea because I choose to? Partly, but this relates to wider issues of housing prices in the South East and the lack of either social housing or affordable private housing which is available. It relates to the official view in the early 21st centrury of those who are seen to be middle class and able to should scrape through in the private sector in flats, but should be denied the dream of a house. It relates to the story of a supportive family who have always sought to ensure that myself and Third Party were in "decent" accomodation & have been able to realise that desire. It relates to the fact I have been able to put the right sort of information on reference forms, etc and so am not one of the excluded within our society. It relates to the fact Third Party is not a problem child and so has been able to treat accomodation appropriately & has not exhibted too much behaviour which is judged to be a nusiance. It relates to the fact that I live in a particular community & have established myself within that community. It relates to so much more than me simply choosing to live by the sea.
The fact the flat is in the South East of England is a combination of accident of birth, networking of community, educational opportunity & employment opportunity. All of which show that whilst I may be average by general UK standards I am infact incredibly priviledged by international standards and that I have so much to be thankful, yet not arrogant about. These things do not make me better than anybody else, but they do make my life easier than the lives of many other people, both in this country and abroad. Do I have a responsibility to use that priviledge to help others by working in partnership with them & as Galloway points out in her book can we work in partnership whilst we hold the power?
The clothes we wear link our map into the lives of others, with less priviledged lifestyles and provide a range of challenges. They also link into the fact that the chainstore where they were purchased has not abandoned the high streets of small towns when so many of their competitors have chosen to exit to out of town superstores or simply exist in city centre shopping malls. They link to the fact there is not a car on this map, they link to the nature of affordable clothing, they link to a set of attitudes which say part of moving on and feeling that I have achieved is that I no longer need to shop in charity stores, although I know in many ways this would be the ethical thing to do. Within that sits a range of traditional cultural attitudes towards recycling and the place of second hand clothing.
Already this map is telling more than the simple image in its centre would initially suggest.