Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/a-manner-of-speaking/5025596/
Late afternoon on the beach. My granddaughter Schon (age 12) and I are flying a kite—and we are happy.
“Why does it feel so good to fly a kite?” I ask.
Schon is thoughtful. “I think because you feel like you control something. Everything is so unpredictable and confusing right now. No one knows what is going to happen. I want to control something.”
“What do adults need to understand?” I wondered.
Schon continued, “I want to control myself and what I do. It is harder to just go along and be part of things that I probably would have been okay with before. I want to make my own choices about my time and what I do. So being able to control something provides a sense of security; because while everything else is crashing down around you, you have something that is yours.”
When we are shaken by uncertainty, we search for something to hold on to, something to ground us, something to stabilize our sense of well-being. Like Schon, we are looking for what we can control, something that is ours. We are being told to do many things we really do not want to do—stay physically away from others, wear masks, stay ...