Re: Silent participation
vera p john-steiner (vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu)
Fri, 10 Sep 1999 10:42:26 -0600 (MDT)
Dear Eva and Nate,
To me safety is a relative matter. Perhaps as an immigrant--as so
many of us are on this list--I find that I search for homes.They are
hard to find. So I (we) may welcome and also expect an awful lot when
promised an intellectual and emotional haven. If there is turmoil in the
house, withdrawl is a sensible response. But there are other issues as
well, I think, many newcomers feel unsure of how to enter, others feel
lost after a discussion has been going on for a while and they have not
participated. I had some serious family issues and a personal deadline
during the Daly exchanges. I could not enter with out feeling that my
potential comments were ill-timed, so I kept silent. That silence still
bothers me, but it is better to live with it then with the consequences of
a poorly thought out note, that may have flamed the exchange even more.
I also remember times when very personal exchanges, kind, supportive ones
made an enormous difference in my life. So all I can think of is that
we should talk about this silence some more, so we can share the burden of
it, together. And hope, on the eve of the Jewish New Year, and the morning
after we burn away the gloom of the last year, by burning Zozobra here
in Santa Fe, that we are a community, for better and worse.
lovingly,
Vera
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Vera P. John-Steiner
Department of Linguistics
Humanities Bldg. 526
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
(505) 277-6353 or 277-4324
Internet: vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu
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