A Mildly Depressed Teacher's Perspective
On the 20th anniversary of my father’s death, myfamily had a remembrance weekend in his honor. That weekend, we did some importantand healthy reflecting about the traumatic experience. The meaningful weekend validatedhow well our family had bonded through our shared suffering. However, what was mostsurprising was how our shared experience still resulted in such differentperspectives about my dad’s death.Sorting through a shared, painful experience can be complicated.Each person’s personality, past experiences, emotional state, educationalbackground, sexuality, gender, life stage, philosophy, and much more plays intocomprehending the communal experience.
Emotionally and politically charged experiences can make thesorting out all the more difficult. Thispast year, all of Wisconsin has suffered through the passage and enactment of emotionallycharged legislation designed to weaken the role of public workers and theirunions in the state government, local governments,