On one hand, I feel sad—because it’s clear you’ve gone through similar traumas.
On the other hand, I’m glad—glad that my words could give voice to feelings and experiences that are so often buried or dismissed.
I truly believe that those of us who have lived through childhood abuse must tell our stories. It's a way to reclaim even a small part of the life that was taken from us.
I’m truly looking forward to reading your words with interest and empathy. I noticed you live in South Africa—what a remarkable place. Years ago, I had the privilege of working there, including in the two special kingdoms within it. It remains one of the most meaningful sequences of experiences in my life—something I’ll write about soon.
I always said that Cape Town and the Table Mountains felt like the place where God showed love. That’s how deeply it touched me.
We are taught to read, to add-up, to speak someone else' language, to under-stand new-tech so we can be a member of the working community, we are taught selections of history told by the victors, we are taught how other people, authors, have the talent to create mesmerising stories - but we are not taught how to understand ourselves, or to understand others, or to understand behaviours. The inertia of educational programmes leaves us ill-prepared for the journey through life that you describe in your posts. It is about time (unless I am missing something) that young people (who have decided to be taught in these subjects) are involved in some significant way in determining what skills they need to be taught to live well. Some hope!
We are victims and perpetrators. We are unhealed souls running around in circles and hurting others and in doing so hurting ourselves. School has nothing to do with that. Hmmm I don t think things will get better. Families are fragmented and will continue to be. This is the main problem. Life is a lottery. You can be born in a family with less “baggage” or not. Life is a lottery!
I know the pain of growing up without love. It scarred me for the biggest part of my life. Brilliant post!
Dear Rea,
Thank you for your comment.
On one hand, I feel sad—because it’s clear you’ve gone through similar traumas.
On the other hand, I’m glad—glad that my words could give voice to feelings and experiences that are so often buried or dismissed.
I truly believe that those of us who have lived through childhood abuse must tell our stories. It's a way to reclaim even a small part of the life that was taken from us.
I posted my story a couple of months ago. At first, I wanted to delete it. But I was the innocent.
Dear Rea,
I’m truly looking forward to reading your words with interest and empathy. I noticed you live in South Africa—what a remarkable place. Years ago, I had the privilege of working there, including in the two special kingdoms within it. It remains one of the most meaningful sequences of experiences in my life—something I’ll write about soon.
I always said that Cape Town and the Table Mountains felt like the place where God showed love. That’s how deeply it touched me.
https://open.substack.com/pub/reademiranda/p/my-uncle-loved-me?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2tp83q
I shared some of my photos of Cape Town too.
Beautiful country!
We are taught to read, to add-up, to speak someone else' language, to under-stand new-tech so we can be a member of the working community, we are taught selections of history told by the victors, we are taught how other people, authors, have the talent to create mesmerising stories - but we are not taught how to understand ourselves, or to understand others, or to understand behaviours. The inertia of educational programmes leaves us ill-prepared for the journey through life that you describe in your posts. It is about time (unless I am missing something) that young people (who have decided to be taught in these subjects) are involved in some significant way in determining what skills they need to be taught to live well. Some hope!
We are victims and perpetrators. We are unhealed souls running around in circles and hurting others and in doing so hurting ourselves. School has nothing to do with that. Hmmm I don t think things will get better. Families are fragmented and will continue to be. This is the main problem. Life is a lottery. You can be born in a family with less “baggage” or not. Life is a lottery!