They didn't teach me to be
forgiving. Sarah taught me this when she was 12 and
she would say "It's okay, best friend."
They didn't teach me that I
could learn more from children and teenagers than I
could from adults.
They didn't teach me to take
children and teenagers' feelings seriously.
They didn't teach me the
importance of traveling.
They didn't teach me to walk
away from people who were hurting me, invalidating me, mocking me, judging me,
disapproving of me.
They didn't teach me to walk
away from people who were trying to control me, who
were pressuring me or manipulating me.
They didn't teach me to see
when someone was trying to do any of these things.
They never even mentioned any of these things.
Then didn't teach me the
difference between deserved and undeserved guilt.
They didn't teach me about
emotionally abusive mothers. Steff and Tatiana
at 14, and Nicole Norris at 17, did.
They didn't teach me what
invalidation is.
They didn't teach me how to
live in a van.
They didn't teach me how to
live simply.
They didn't teach me what was
really important in life and what was unnecessary.
They didn't teach me anything
about the writing of Henry David Thoreau.
They didn't teach me much, if
anything, about Gandhi.
They didn't teach me anything
about Buddhism, Hinduism or any of the world's
non-Christian belief systems.
They didn't teach me anything
about the writing of Nathaniel Branden, or Alice
Miller or Wayne Dyer or David Burns
They didn't teach me anything
about the writing of Norman Vincent Peale or Hermann
Hesse or Leo Buscaglia or Haim Ginott
They taught me nothing about
the writing of Erich Fromm and almost nothing about
the writing of Abraham Maslow
They didn't teach me anything
about personal growth and self-help literature.
They didn't teach me anything
about Frederick Douglas.
They didn't teach me to know
myself.
They didn't teach me to
identify my emotional needs.
They didn't teach me to believe
in myself.
They didn't teach me to
understand how my family was hurting me and using me
to try to fill their unmet emotional needs.
They didn't teach me the names
of my feelings.
They didn't teach me how to
express my feelings with feeling words.
They didn't teach me anything
about
emotional literacy.
They didn't teach me that we
are each primarily responsible for our own feelings
and we have more control over them than most people
realize.
They didn't teach me that it is
healthy for me to write.
They didn't teach me anything
about depression or why a teenager would want to kill themselves or cut
themselves.
They didn't teach me how to listen.
They didn't teach me how to
show understanding.
They didn't teach me anything
about compassion.
They didn't teach me how to silently hug a crying child.
They didn't teach me that there
is already too much competition in the world.
They didn't teach me to see the
many ways people distract themselves and numb
themselves from their feelings.
They didn't teach me the
difference between fear and respect or respect and obedience.
They didn't teach me that
making "good" grades doesn´t make someone
a good person.
They didn't teach me to think
about the difference between a good
"Christian", (or a good "Muslim",
"Jew" etc) and a good human being.
They didn't teach me that
patriotism is not good for the world.
They didn't teach me that the
word "good" is a very subjective word.
They didn't teach me about the
messages in songs like John Lennon's "Imagine"
They didn't teach me anything
at all about children of alcoholics.
They didn't teach me anything
about emotional, verbal or psychological abuse.
They didn't teach me that
people will try to use you in all kinds of ways, and
that if you obey these people long enough, there will
be nothing left of you.
They didn't teach me anything
at all about love.
They didn't teach me that it
feels good to help people.
They didn't teach me to follow
my heart.
They didn't teach me that a hug is the answer.