[ʆë®Ñï†Ý]

This hit me hard.


traditional power hierarchies are first taught and acted on the
battlefield
of the playground. older children use their greater physical abilities
to
support their authority. strength is power. athleticism is power.


girls gather by the lockers and begin the interplay of inclusion and
exclusion. are we still friends with her today? social skill is power.
popularity is power. attractiveness is power.


but what of the children who possess that quality which the school was
created to seek out and develop - the connection with an otherworld of
creative experience that imparts a passion for writing, or for art, or
music, or innovation and invention? the capacity for knowledge, and
more
importantly that skill that allows one to interpret and rearrange it in
ways
as yet unimagined? an empathy for other living creatures and a passion
for
promoting their well-being? a profound understanding of the human
psyche and
a probing questioning at the meaning of existence?


intelligence is weakness. vision is weakness. creativity is weakness.
because they make you sensitive - and sensitive people are the natural
prey
of the powerful.


there are two kinds of strength in people... the strength of a person
who
has never been broken, and the strength of a person who has been
broken, and
healed. one is stronger than the other, but also more difficult. all
too
often, the healing process is interrupted, just like the healing of my
hand,
by the unrelenting demands of life. what results is a person healed
crooked;
like a bone healed crooked, slowly rubbing away in all the wrong
places,
degenerating until it can no longer function. the only thing to do is
go in
and painfully break it again.