Nearing our big announcement

The first phase of our work with Owen Jones is coming to a close. This means that in the near future, you (my dedicated reader – are you out there?) will get to see our new branding and learn of our new name. I am so excited about this, not even a hint of trepidation. You will all love it, and it will be our big coming out. As a mom, I feel like I work behind the scenes. But with this unveiling, I feel like I will be re-joining the work force. Even though I have been working my butt off to get this up and running, it still feels like it has been behind the scenes. And with this coming out I feel like I have to decide on an organizational role/title.

I have been thinking about what I really want my role to be and also what it needs to be. Sometimes those don’t feel like the same thing. I have spent the last year (yes, my darling little one turns 1 in a few weeks), working my buns off to get this thing off the ground. And now it has some teeth and I look back and realize how much I have learned. All the meetings, all the negotiations, all the deals gone done and some undone, it has all added up to something in me, a new skill and it feels like organizational leadership. I have always envisioned myself as a teacher in the school once we get it up and running, but in the meantime I have been doing the work necessary to start this whole thing. Well that work means something. It has created something in me. Not totally sure what this means yet, but I can feel change on the horizon. How could I expect anything other really – should have known.

Anti Bias

I recently had the chance to take a class on anti bias with Katie Kissinger (who wrote a great children’s book on the subject that everyone should read at least once a day to their little ones called “All the Colors We Are” http://www.amazon.com/All-Colors-We-Are-colores/dp/0934140804/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273598010&sr=1-1-spell). This was an eye opening experience for me. I have always thought of myself as a person with few biases (is that a word), or little prejudice. In this class I have came to see the many ways that cultural bias influences me. For instance, I catch myself daydreaming about when my girls get married or when they have kids – not if, but when. Well, what if they don’t get married – or at least not in that traditional white dress, diamond ring way. If what I really dream for them is that they have the courage to follow their True Nature, then I have to be present with those little assumptions and be careful that they do not leak form me to them in the subtle ways (or sometimes not so subtle ways) that tends to be the nature of these things. Worth the price of admission right there.

The other result is that I see bias in others in a much more glaring way. Ever notice how once your perception is opened up anew, you can’t stop seeing it everywhere. Like when you become aware of a new car that you want and you never even knew it existed before and then like magic you start to see them everywhere. It is just like that. Take a moment and thinking about the ways that you carry cultural bias about gender, socio-economic class, skin color, culture, disability or ableness, family configuration and sexual orientation. I bet if you take a close look, you will find things you never knew where there. I did. It is worth doing because those little things are going to get passed to your children if you are not aware of them, if you don’t take the time to notice them and make a conscious effort to change them.