Greetings Everyone! Happy May!
2024 -2025 is proving to be a very complex journey that is producing a gamut of emotions for us all. The continuous evolution of the multiplicity of events transpiring in the fabric of our daily lives can create feelings of unease and pressure to “do something” on many levels. The urge to act in a way that helps to find a resolution is natural, but the fact that there are so many items, concepts, and issues that need to be addressed can create internal struggles.
As we end the 2024-2025 Religious Education program year, and we head into summer with a bit more time to think about and act upon the things that bring meaning to us as individuals, I encourage us all to, while considering the things we believe we “should do,” also acknowledge that those same things can create pressure to live up to an idealized version of self. It is okay not to allow ourselves to be driven by what we think others may expect from us. This is a great opportunity to dive deep into what we expect of ourselves and find a way through that soothes the soul.
I will spend my summer reflecting on past exchanges and experiences, building on the things that worked and are working, confronting goals and needs, and accepting that I cannot do everything. In this moment, I think of the wisdom that my mother shared with me in my youth. She recommended that I look into the concept of The Tyranny of the Shoulds, coined by a German psychoanalyst, Karen Horney, in the 1950s. While space and attention span require an oversimplification of Horney’s psychoanalytic social theory, I reflect on the core premise that it is important to develop coping mechanisms and engage in conflict resolution when and if we start to feel anxious about perceived unmet needs, goals, and shoulds. I will spend my summer attempting to be as authentic to myself as possible while journeying through the ever-changing landscape of the meandering line in the sand that has become the daily living.
I wish you all a great summer! See you in the 2025-2026 RE program year!