DEAR YOGESHREE
This is being written on an air-flight to Namibia - so if the writing is shaky - then it's turbulence.
Mighty congratulations on your pass. How proud your family must be that you now have the degree and that you have done so well, I see from your CV.that you have a record of doing well. I,m not suprised that you have found work already. I do hope that you will be happy in what you have chosen. I am sure you will do as you say - find creative ways of making young people (and no doubt adults too) literate.
I am sorry that you have had losses in you family. To spend a peaceful , quiet but reverence filled Diwali makes good sense to me..It is the way I see the Christ-mass - not really a time to party, but more of a time of reverence , quiet fellowship and thanksgiving . You are a resilient person. Your CV shows that you are an achiever and a performance orientated person. you are personally an energetic, driven cheerful soul , so, with all the signs of resilience - you will and can go far. I am more than happy to be a companion on your journey. I do feel that I have done very little for you up to now. So, maybe this is where I can start to give you early guidelines for the climb to the top.
Sharpen your alpine boots.
I once met a person who headed a huge engineering company. On top of this he undertook to raise R1m for his old High School Building fund. He gave half an hour a day and another one hour a week for a meeting of the project, In 'those days' a R1m was a very big sum of money..... he raised it in three months.
This man gave me a lesson I will never forget.
He said that when you build a massive bridge you have to have a grand design. It the vision of the big picture that you have of the finished bridge, but there is an even bigger picture that you have to have. It has to do with how the bridge will impact on a societal system. It must at once serve and uplift communities and the quality of life.... benefit the world, so to speak. ...and yet be in harmony with it.
The bridge , he said has to be beautiful in itself, yet very practical. It has to improve the quality of life. It has to contribute to a better world.
"Yet", he said " as an engineer, I have to know and pay attention to every nut and bolt - that's my job.Any oversight in the minutest detail and the beautiful bridge has a weakness that may cause it ti collapse with catastrophic results.... the end of any thought of social upliftment, just hurt, injury and possibly ... death."
"That's my job, "he said," I build bridges".
The analogy fits perfectly the work we do in child and youth care. Bridge building is what it is all about.
Some of us work with the children and youth who must be supported as they make a crossing from disharmony into a better world. Some of us build the bridge, some of us visualise it, design it and fit it into the bigger vision for a better world. Some of us do all of these. All of us are part of the visions and we all have to give the same minute attention to detail as does the engineer. All of us are part of the planning and the plan to put all the bits together at the right times to make the transition happen.
Over a period of time I think that I have put together little pieces into a bigger vision that has to do with a new world. Not just a changes world, because I find it difficult to believe that by tweaking the world we have will bring about the transformation that is needed. I know that I will not be completely part of the new world whist I am in this earthly life (unless the end of the world comes soon), but I do know that I have this one chance to work with children and youth so that they can catch the vision of the new world I think the children and people like you will have the power then to create.
I hope that my letters to you an help you to build bridges, to do this for your sake , for the sake of the children and for the sake of a new world.
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