Let me tell you a little more about myself to introduce the first chapter.
I am a Late Bloomer. It was not until my children were grown that I
decided I needed a "purpose in life." I considered being a concert
harpist, but lacked the natural talent. I considered writing a book, but
what did I know that could fill more than five pages? Then I remembered.
As a young woman, I had heard about Margaret Mead. Don't gag! It's the
truth. I read her Redbook articles and marveled at her independence and
solitary travel to exotic places. I had gone from the protective arms of
devoted parents to the protection of a husband. My year of independence
in between had hardly been marked by success. I could barely support myself
in San Francisco after graduation, slept on a mattress on the floor and
used suitcases for dresser drawers. My couch was an old door. I dressed
in my roommates' clothes, and was thoroughly bewildered in my minimum wage
job. So I did what most of my friends did at the time. I got married and
raised kids.
Then my children were grown. My husband had a challenging career and
I had--what? If I could be anything in the world, what would I be? An anthropologist
like Margaret Mead. I wanted adventure, new challenges, and meaning. I
didn't want to be so much like Mead that I went up the Sepik river with
one husband and came down the river with another, but I did want to get
to know people very different from me. Anthropology it was. I began my
journey getting a second bachelors degree in anthropology from the University
of Central Florida, my masters and doctorate from the University of Florida.
Back to chapter one. My anthropological curiosity (p.3) peaked in my
desire to know more about cultures which created people who marched to
a different drummer. Why did the Polynesians I met in Bora Bora seem so
relaxed and say "No problem" when I asked them why our rental
car was not available at the time we ordered it. Why didn't they hurry
to call the valet to retrieve it? When the car arrived after an hour and
a half of waiting, we circumnavigated the island, all seven miles of it,
in less than an hour. Where were we in such a hurry to go? Now I know and
honor people with different "internal clocks." It makes me question
the artificial "hurry" of my life today. From those early questions,
I expanded my thoughts to other patterns of human behavior. What makes
you curious? What do you wonder about human behavior? Those are your questions
for this weeks bulletin board activity.
Back
to Session 2
