“We Had a Great Workshop”
I organized the recent Raised Rural Workshop [see previous article]. The leader, Beth Edmonds, was brilliant in covering many topics related to being raised rural, in celebrating who we are as humans, and in contradicting our distresses.
The workshop began with our sharing where we had grown up and what we had loved about it. Beth noticed that many of us did not use the names of the places where we had grown up—probably because of oppression and thinking that no one would know where they were. She encouraged us to start using the names.
Beth had us counsel on the fact that many of us, because of urbanization, are leaving the rural areas. Small farms are being dissolved and the land is being used for things other than farming. Many of us are heartbroken about the loss of the land we grew up connected to. We need to discharge the heartbreak—both for ourselves and because if we don’t we may blame the people who move to that land.
Beth talked about isolation and how it can be a feeling, and a dischargeable one. We may have lived far away from lots of other people, but we went to school and got together in other ways in our communities. We weren’t isolated. She talked about how urban people sometimes feel isolated even while living next door to someone or to lots of people.
Beth did a lot to contradict any patterns of insignificance. We rural and small-town people are told that we are not as smart or significant as people from bigger places. Many urban people have lost their awareness of rural contributions, even though they benefit from them (from lumber, food, and so on). She encouraged us to look at the contributions of people from rural areas. Rural people possess much unappreciated knowledge.
She also talked a lot about alcohol, as it plays a significant role in how rural people are oppressed. The advertising of alcohol is aimed in a particular way at rural people. Rural people often work hard in jobs that are dangerous and don’t have much time for pleasure or family. What is offered to them is alcohol. It numbs them enough that they don’t complain. Beth created a wonderful space in which to work on alcohol use, even if we had feelings that we were bad because of it.
On our last day, Beth talked about leading and building RC in rural areas. One thing to think about is confidentiality—which is hugely important in rural areas, where everyone knows everybody and has an idea of what is going on [happening] with others. We need to build trust with people over time, and persist.
Several people mentioned feeling particularly supported at this workshop to look at the hard things about being raised rural. They said that it felt almost like being in a small town or rural area again.
We had a great workshop and look forward to more.
Slaterville Springs, New York, USA
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion list for RC Community members
(Present Time 192, July 2018)