18 Jun 2014

GLOBAL HUMANITY

These days I am very much "world charmed", taking a course on global trends, and thinking about locality and globalisation. Why, you might ask, do I talk about globalisation in an essentially "mummy blog"?
One of "Deconstructing Mummy"'s central mantra is that a mother is more than just a mother. She is a person, above and beyond her motherly role. Still motherhood is a very potent lense to view the world.
Today I attended my 5 year old son's assembly. The theme was based on the song "Hello to all the children of the World". It was about diversity, inclusion, globality, respect and teamwork. 

There they were, little beautiful sprouts from all around the world, sitting next to each other, getting up one by one, declaring their "special country": Greece, Australia, India, Ghana, Liberia, Japan, Bangladesh, Bolivia,Colombia, Turkey, England. 
They sang holding hands, looking at each other as classmates and not as beings defined by their country of origin, status, class, colour. 
They were all equally eager to catch a glimpse of their parents, to show off with pride how well they sang the song. They sang also in sign language, using their little hands to express unknowingly a much deeper truth: that of relating no matter what.
I was sitting there in awe of this lesson in life, thinking not only what a great job this school does, but also how important it is to be taught how to relate to others humbly, respectfully and equally.
How well this lesson will be taken on board, depends in the end on us. The mothers and fathers at home. Our attitudes, fears and stereotypes. Are we going to support what the school teaches, or fill these young souls with fear of the"other"? 
I come from Greece. A country that is currently having a very hard time financially, but most importantly societally, and very soon I believe politically. Without wanting to go into too much detail here, I will say that though in Greece the far right atrocity-committing party of Golden Dawn did not match France or Uk results in the European Elections, it is alive and kicking. For me even the 3 MEPs is a dark warning sign. 
In Psychoanalysis, we say that when the EGO(our core being in lay terms) is strong, it is well protected from threat and can relate freely with others. It does not need to resort to paranoid modes of being where other people/situations are perceived as dangerous, persecutory and harmful. The flip side of the coin is when the Ego is chaotic, with no boundaries to preserve our individuality. The Ego goes into these modes when it feels weak, unable to put right boundaries, full of doubt about our abilities, our standing in the world, our self worth. 
Seeing these children today, offers a visual example to exactly that: they were all together, sharing naturally an experience of togetherness without losing their individuality (their "Special countries"). 
It is up to us, as mothers (and fathers) to bring them up, allowing for the preservation of their individuality, while teaching them the rules of life. Will we teach them to fear? to hide behind their "unique" class, colour, culture, gender? Or will we teach them ways to relate and bring in this magical mix with others, their own strong, loving shelves? Will we teach them to reach out, or to stay put? Will we teach them the essence of humanity, or as the song says: 
Though some things might be different, 
we’re children just the same....
If we could meet each other, to run and sing and play,
Then what good friends we all could be...........

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