What I Learned From My Mother
Author
Kasdorf, Julia
Genre
Play
Overview
Julia Kasdorf is an award-award winning poet who grew up in Western Pennsylvania. Her earthy, colorful poems draw deeply on lived experience and often reveal an ache for connection and community. "What I Learned From My Mother" is a list of simple, specific things the poet's mother did for those around her in need—from taking garden flowers to the sick to attending funeral viewings. It raises the possibility that the suffering of others might become a source of meaning in our own lives by creating conditions that ask us to make ourselves useful. It also touches on questions of upbringing and whether a person can be taught to be generous.
Full Text*
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Source
Sleeping Preacher by Julia Kasdorf (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992), p. 43.
Type
Reading
Themes
Connection and RelationshipCrisis and ConflictGiving and ReceivingHeritage and TraditionIdentity and CommunityLove and CompassionMotives and ValuesServing and VolunteeringTeaching and Learning
Big Questions
What makes it possible for us to connect to others? What gets in the way?How should we respond to crisis?Who should we give to and why?How have my past and heritage shaped me?How has my family or background shaped who I am?How does a person learn compassion?Is my service changing the world or only myself? Is that enough?Where does the best learning happen – in the classroom or elsewhere?
Publication
Talking Giving