Hi Adriana,
I began writing this on your birthday. I heard you got the card we sent today! I'm glad. We hope this will be your best year yet!
I've been thinking about ideas lately, especially since I heard an interview with the author of "The Idea of America" on PBS. (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/darren-walker-explores-inequality-and-democracy-in-the-idea-of-america )
Here's a link to the author of the book: https://www.fordfoundation.org/news-and-stories/big-ideas/the-idea-of-america-reflections-on-inequality-democracy-and-the-values-we-share/
I hope my thoughts below might be interesting to you as you look at the school year. (I hope you're able to attend some classes in person and make some friends who'll stick by you, and with whom you can be a mutually-supportive group.)
I grew up in the 1950s, as you know from my book, in small town education systems like Bayard, Big Springs, and Ainsworth (Nebraska). And I so much value what I learned in what was called back then "Social Studies." As I now watch certain forces take apart what I grew up thinking the United States of America stood for, I am aware of how much what we call "government" and "community" and even "school" and "church" all are based on certain ideas of what each should be and what the members of each community embrace as a kind of "social contract." So as we live in "America," in order for our representative democracy to work, we all have to agree to work the make it work, and we do that through our elected representatives. That's why elections are important.
Basically, "America" is an idea: you can find it in the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, and the Constitution itself. The idea is also explored in a social studies curriculum called "An Idea Called America." Here's the introduction:
Our citizenship is based on an idea we call America. America evolved out of the principles of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, suggesting that individuals could govern themselves and that people were "endowed" with "unalienable rights" such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these principles, Americans would continue to work on forming a more perfect Union, by establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing liberty into the future. Thus, "U.S. citizenship" means embracing these principles, which when taken together, we call America.
https://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/articles/se_710507243.pdf
Our systems are being challenged at nearly every level. Even "family," "sex," "gender," and "love" are coming under critical scrutiny. Even "freedom" is being attacked and attempts made to redefine it.
These are hard times. I like and will participate in "No Kings" demonstrations, which remember that the revolutionary war was fought over whether one man, the king of England, could or should govern the Americas.
If you've been studying some of these things, then these thoughts are not new. (I hope these issues have been in the materials you've either been reading or encouraged to read)
Some of this was heightened by what happened at our church Arvada UMC yesterday. The third and fourth-grade kids were given bibles from the church, and I remembered how important that was for me in 3d grade: my dad asked me how I wanted my name to read on the front cover. I said "Ben Roe," the first time I claimed the ability to have a say in what I wanted to be called.
I think that one thing I have taken from my listening to Deb and my dad's sermons over the years as I grew up and the many other sermons since, as well as the reading I did in religion and philosophy classes in college in Lincoln and later, is that the bible is a source of many of the ideas of our human culture. The interesting thing is that these ideas are usually not stated like they are in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution, but instead through stories: the ideas that we see are in the stories of the imperfect people like Adam (lying, blaming), Abraham (following instructions), Isaac, Jacob (deceit, lying, preparation, humility, reconciliation), Amos, Isaiah, Elijah, and many others (justice, equality, care for creation and other people, etc.). But for Jesus-followers, the story of Jesus is the main story, which holds many important and perhaps the most important ideas of faith and spirituality. Ideas such as the value of persons, no matter their station or status in life, the value of love as a motivating idea for relationships, both personal and social—and the upside down ethics of the last being first and the first being last. Probably one of the most accessible books on these ideas is Marcus Borg's Reading the Bible Again for the First Time (https://marcusjborg.org/books/reading-the-bible-again-for-the-first-time/)
Anyway I mention these things because of the upheaval of our country due to the current authoritarian leanings of the current president and his administration. Knowing one's own values on the important issues can be a protection against being lied to and misled by those who would manipulate us through lies, exaggeration, hyperbole, and raw power plays. What are values? They are the ideas that make sense to us that guide our behavior (including speech), such as honesty, commitment, clarity, love, reconciliation, effort, etc.
In my opinion, clarifying and claiming our own values takes intentional thought as well as reflection on our actual behavior (which sometimes just happens, and sometimes the consequences are different than we expected!). That's how I've worked with my values over the years. In fact, writing my book and especially the final chapter, helped me clarify what I really believe about things, particularly sexuality which was one of the "puzzles" my polio experience gave me to solve.
Another time I've felt the need to clarify my own values was when those of us in the United Methodist Church were trying so hard to change the negative language towards LGBTQ persons in the 50 years leading up to the big change which finally happened a year ago last May in Charlotte, NC. You can find that in my document called "A Word About My Faith Commitments" which I'm enclosing. (https://jbenjaminroe.com/jbr/writings/181-a-word-about-my-faith-commitments)
So we develop and clarify our values ar critical times of our lives, or just at times when we're called to choose one behavior or another, one course of action or another, and when we think about what we've just done or have to decide what to do. We can also listen carefully to what values might be informing things people might be saying. For instance, when some of our leaders call immigrants names or describe them in demeaning terms, they are not valuing all human beings equally. One of the most shocking images for me some months ago was the way the folks who were deported to that awful prison in El Salvador were being treated: like animals, without respect and with mean methods. You know from your own experience what it feels like to be mistreated, called names, and even touched in ways that are not respectful.
I hope you've been able with help to develop ways to protect yourself from the bullying and mistreatment that led to your isolation and home studying. I hope that you can graduate either with a diploma from your high school or with a successful GED test.
You've probably read about some rather famous people who've learned on their own like you've had to do over the past few years. There's even a word for that: "autodidacts" and Wikipedia has a whole list of these folks: Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, Ray Bradbury, Eddie Van Halen… What matters is not the piece of paper that says you've learned whatever, but what you actually know, what you can do, what you enjoy doing and what you might actually make a living at doing.
I think education is important—I've sure spent a lot of years learning stuff! I think education is where we learn the important ideas about life, the culture in which we live, and the world around our cultures and countries—and maybe even the amazing universe!
This has gotten long, and I hope something in what I've said is interesting or at least useful. Someday I would enjoy getting to know you better, if you'd like that.
Happy birthday! I hope your day was special (Deb told me a bit about it). I'd be interested in what you thought about what you did.
Maggie sends her love and best wishes, too,
Ben
More Links (you know that the world's knowledge—good and bad—is in your hand on a smartphone or laptop if you know how to make a good search term or phrase!):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodidacticism and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_autodidacts
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript