SOON

Volume 18
December 2006
In this Volume...

St Luke's Innovative Resources

137 McCrae St

Bendigo 3550 Australia

 

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(03) 5442 0500

 

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(03) 5442 0555

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What Are You Going to Do with 390 Photographs of Christmas Trees?

That's the title of a story by Richard Brautigan, one of the most unique American artists of the 20th century. 

The story is set in San Francisco during the Christmas that followed the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It's a poignant story about grief, abandoned Christmas trees and the loss of innocence:

...walking down a dark and silent street toward home, I saw a Christmas tree abandoned next to a fire hydrant. The tree had been stripped of its decorations and lay there sadly, like a dead soldier after losing a battle. A week before it had been a kind of hero.

Then I saw another Christmas tree with a car half-parked on it. Somebody had left their tree in the street and the car had accidentally run over it. The tree was certainly a long way from a child's loving attention. Some of the branches were sticking up through the bumper.

It was that time of the year when people in San Francisco get rid of their Christmas trees by placing them in the streets or vacant lots or wherever they can get rid of them. It is the journey away from Christmas.'

I thought about this story recently as I walked past the windows of Myer in Bendigo and noticed that the Christmas trees were on display. It was October 25th. To me those Christmas trees were even sadder than those in Brautigan's story. A Christmas tree in October isn't a hero. It's somehow displaced-out of context-like a person who's turned up three hours early for a party and the hors d'oevres aren't even made.

I thought about what the week before Christmas was like when we were kids. Putting up the tree on the last day of school. The astonishment when we flicked the power switch and the lights still worked. Our hero tree glowing in the corner of the loungeroom, faintly visible from the street outside. The magic of its projected shapes and colours on the ceiling. The butterflies of Christmas approaching.

We took it down again before New Year's Day; grieved for it as we packed it back into its torn box. Our battered hero laid to rest for another year. But it meant ... something.

I gaze at the straight rows of trees in Myer ... and Kmart ... and Target ... and Big W; marching to the beat of Jingle Bells, the dust of last year's display still coating their plastic needles, and mourn for the innocence and magic of Christmas past.

John Holton

                     

                      Read the full Brautigan story

 

 

'I bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note attached saying, "toys not included'".

Bernard Manning

 

Available February 2007...

Symbols

Symbols of peace

Symbols of hope

Symbols to keep

Your dreams afloat

Introducing Symbols, a box of 100 evocative images that work as poems for the soul.

A symbol is a metaphor; something that means something else. Metaphors and symbols work as short cuts-cosmic 'worm holes' to understanding and feelings.

 

Symbols is a set of simple, free-hand line drawings of everyday objects that can suggest layers of meaning to the observer.

 

Therapists who work with those struggling with grief and loss suggested this particular set of symbols. They have resonance with people grappling with the big questions in life.

Symbols can be used with individuals and groups as a therapeutic tool for:

  • building conversations and relationships
  • setting goals
  • creating meaning
  • storytelling and creative writing

Open this delightful box of symbols and experience the possibilities of new insights and transformation.

       

 

View this resource on our website

 

'A picture is a poem without words.'

Horace 

 

                            
symbols in action

 

Preparing to attend the funeral

 

A disability worker selected several Symbols cards to help prepare her client, Sarah, to attend her father's funeral. The cards Sarah chose were: coffin, tear drop, heart, candle, flower, cross, gravestone, hands praying, and book.

 

Using each of these Symbols cards the worker was able to speak with Sarah about the various possible images and symbols she might see at her father's funeral. The worker and Sarah had three separate conversations over a few days which helped Sarah prepare for, and better understand, what she might experience.

 

Sarah was also invited to draw her own feelings and thoughts about her dad's death and funeral, using her own symbolism.

              

               Symbols in ordinary connectedness

 

Alistair was drawn to two Symbols cards-a bed and a tree. He described his relationship of four years with his partner as rocky, yet ordinary and complex. Alistair previously lived a solitary life. For him the bed symbolised a twin, paired experience which is vastly different from his earlier way of being in the world. Similarly, the tree represented an important relationship with an elderly neighbour who Alistair described himself as having 'come to love'. His neighbour plants and cares for Alistair's garden. Both relationships are described as solid and ordinary.

 

Alistair reflected on having let both people 'take a hold of me' as he pointed to his heart. Alistair pondered the ordinariness of things; the daily act of making the bed, the daily act of the seasons. He noted that there is something reassuring about the everydayness. The 'taking hold' is something he said he cannot allow himself to fully know yet; to be able to count on these people in his life and to be touched by them in ways that are unexpected is very new for him. 'They are ordinary men,' he said, and 'I have found a new ability to take hold of ordinariness in my life.'

 

' Beneath the favourite tale of the moment a deeper story always lies waiting to be discovered.'

Thomas Moore  

New on Our Shelf List...

 

Lost in Normality ... recapture the extraordinary

Have you ever had the feeling that you didn't measure up, didn't quite make the grade? Perhaps you felt 'not good enough', inadequate, or not worth as much as others? Maybe it was just a sense that you weren't as 'together' as you would have liked, or you just dropped the bundle. This is how Australian social worker Michael White sums up what he describes as a feeling of personal failure.

Narrative therapist, Jane Hutton, and artist, Kate Knapp, have used these ideas to produce Lost in Normality, a set of 36 cards with a 20-page booklet, that are all about understanding personal failure and finding the value in it.

Normality is insidiously powerful. It can sometimes work for us, but often works against us. Perceptions of what is normal can marginalise individuals and groups of people and give great power to those who live their lives within its boundaries. They can be used to diminish people on the basis of cultural or spiritual practices, sexuality and physical or mental health.

Each card in Lost in Normality features one of Kate Knapp's unique and soulful illustrations on the front and a set of questions and a statement on the back, to open up conversations about 'normality' in our own experiences and cultures.

The cards are perfect for a myriad of situations:

  • in groups
  • for individual reflection
  • with friends
  • with your partner
  • for teaching narrative ideas
  • consulting with clients about their sense of personal failure
  • conversations in the workplace

Lost in Normality does not focus on what we are 'lacking', but what these so called 'failures' can tell us about what really matters to us in our lives.

Lost in Normality does not suggest that all of society's norms and expectations are unreasonable. Nor is it encouraging a failure to treat other beings with kindness and care. It is not promoting a wholesale rejection of our ethical expectations or environmental responsibility. Instead it offers us the choice to reject society's notions of 'normality' and 'adequacy' to discover our own worth as people.

Now available from Innovative Resources

Lost in Normality

Created by Jane Hutton and Kate Knapp

Twigseeds Publishing, 2005

Cat No. 8799 AU$65.00

 

                      Buy this resource on our website 

 

'The judges of normality are present everywhere. We are the society of the teacher-judge, the doctor-judge, the neighbour-judge and the social worker-judge.'

Michel Foucault  


Welcome to Not Normalville

The cake-filled world of Jane Hutton & Kate Knapp

 

I recently spoke to one of the co-creators of Lost in Normality, Kate Knapp, about normality, dog whispering, and the creative powers of cake and biscuits.

What was the spark for a set of cards that exposes the effects of normality?

It came firstly from our own personal encounters with the tricky and challenging idea of normality. Jane noticed it wasn't only us wrestling with these feelings but also the people who came to talk with her in her practice. I found the beginning of a personal relationship the perfect climate for expectations and ideas of normality to grow. I began drawing birds in an effort to understand and see humour in it. Everywhere we turned seductive ideas of normality seemed to be strangling extraordinariness.

 

Jane had been captured for some time with Michael White's personal failure ideas. There were endless conversations about how we could communicate these ideas simply to lots of people. We were creating a workbook because people had been responding so well to the illustrations. Then, after some workshops using the illustrations as flash cards, and some very persistent therapists begging us for copies, we pushed ourselves to create this resource.

 

Do you think the conservative political climate of the past decade makes Lost in Normality even more relevant?

Ideas of normality do appear to be getting stronger and more limiting. With the influence of the media inviting us to jump through ever narrowing hoops to 'measure up' it's no accident that there's an epidemic of depression and anxiety. It is partly a political idea to just medicate without questioning why a person is experiencing distress. Individualising people's experiences is a political act.

What was the process for developing the questions for each card?

Cup of tea, cup of coffee, bit of cake, cup of tea, cup of coffee, biscuit, cup of tea, cup of coffee, think of a question...

 

In the midst of all the comforting, Jane would draw on Michael White's failure map to create questions that guided the user through the map steps. We also drew on her practice experience by using questions she would ask in conversations. I was like this painful ringing in Jane's ear-'keep it simple' or 'I don't get it'.

What came first, the illustrations or the questions?

The illustrations came first. On talking we realised the illustrations and ideas ran parallel. The questions were created as an opening to explore ideas and reflect on where the illustrations had taken them. During this process lots of new illustrations emerged.

 

What does it mean to re-story our lives?

Not only to make sense of our lives in stories, but those stories shape our lives by giving us ideas about how we can respond to people and situations. "I don't measure up" stories (which can be quite discouraging) can be transformed by turning the spotlight on the measure and reflecting on what we might have been valuing instead, and what this says about who we are.

 

This resource feels like the result of a serendipitous creative partnership. How did that come about?

How long have you got? Jane and I became friends after spotting each other in a coffee shop. I was like a magpie when I saw Jane's colourful clothes and her infectious joyful spirit. Jane discovered my art, which touched her heart. Jane would stay over at my place when working in Brisbane and long conversations about life, the universe and everything sparked this project.

 

What are your hopes for Lost in Normality ?

We hope to recover! Really, our greatest hope is for these ideas to get out there to lots of people, enabling them to begin questioning the effects of normality. We hope that they open possibilities and allow people to recognise their own extraordinariness.

Jane Hutton (left) works as a narrative therapist in a private practice. her background training as a social worker gives her a strong interest in social justice and how culture shapes our experiences of others and ourselves.

Kate Knapp (right) is an Australian artist who creates illustrations of whimsical personalities (like her dog, Saffy) that express simple messages to enrich the human spirit.

Jane and Kate share the same passion of seeking the extraordinary in life.

 

'I'm not afraid of heights, but I'm afraid of widths.'

Steven Wright

  


SOON mailbox

 

Dear John,

I really loved the article about Tanya Batt (SOON Vol.17) and her book The Story Sack. I purchased a copy and it has turned out to be a wonderful tool in my work with kids.

She's so right when she says that our brains are wired for understanding through stories. I see it in the kids I work with. By listening to stories and telling their own, they not only become better listeners, language users, problem solvers and communicators, but also become much more emotionally in tune with their peers and families. Tanya described it beautifully as 'a playful, subtle kind of wisdom distilled over centuries'.

I encourage others who work closely with kids to have a look at Tanya's book.

Oh, and I loved the Fred Allen quote: A human being is nothing but a story with skin around it.

Thanks for SOON,

Kate G.

Social Worker

Perth

 

'What if the hokey-pokey really is what it's all about?'


Bob Monkhouse


Micro-story of the month

Dogs vs Cats

'Why did you have to say that?' she scolded. 'We were having such a good night until then.' I looked at her, but she looked away, letting out a long breath. 'I can't understand you sometimes.'

 

I should have said I was sorry. I could have justified myself. Could have twisted around the words. But instead I started to think of how she reminded me of my little sister. I felt that delicious pleasure of teasing someone who prickles so easily. Like patting a cat backwards and watching it arc up.

 

She must have seen my lack of remorse. 'You bloody males, you're all the same!'

 

She was right. Us bloody males.

 

I kept quiet.

 

© Step Forbes 2005

(If the name looks familiar it's because he's also our multi-talented Business Manager here at Innovative Resources. Thanks, Step.)