Reconciliation: A Process of Human Balance
Fall 2005

"Reconciliation with Reality - Awareness of Reality"

How do I define Reconciliation?

Reconciliation means to be reconciled, it means where once there was conflict, distance, or dispute there is now peace, unity, communion, and dialogue.  This is my revised definition. When I first thought the phrase, “to be reconciled” it took me to my spiritual roots, specifically involving the Protestant church and the Bible.  The following thoughts and words (and all their imbued meanings) ran through my head: church, Christ, god, confusion, sin, purification, communion, ostracism, sanctity, sacred, profane, shame, original sin, dialogue, and choice.  Five years ago I began a mythic journey, rejecting the path I’d been on, taking a new spiritual path.  Last year, I was privileged to take another permutation of this program called Patience. Patience helped me accept where I was, allowing me to acknowledge the beauty of other paths while accepting my own. Now, I find myself needing to reconcile, to dialogue, to unite where I have been with where I am now in order to move forward with joy and balance.     

How does this interpretation of Reconciliation affect what I plan to do?

Last year, Patience helped me awaken, helped me accept who I was psychologically, and ethnically.  This year, I hope through Reconciliation to continue that journey of acceptance so that I can move more fully from myself to some sense of community.  In order to continue the journey into Reconciliation, I must reconcile with things in my life.  I must dialogue with and come to peace with aspects of the following areas: religion, gender, sexuality, society, reality, and humanity.

What do I plan to do?

In essence, I am looking at what it means to be a woman, a Hawaiian, a student, a spiritualist, a counselor, a writer, a sexual being, a story teller, a human, etc.  In educational terminology, I’m exploring and dabbling in the following subject areas: Women’s Studies, Women’s Literature, Religious Studies, Asian Studies, Hawaiian Studies, Cultural Studies, Self-Exploratory Writing, Psychology, Sociology, Gender Studies, Current Events, Economics, Health, Human Development, and Communication.

How do I plan to do it?

This is the start of my plan, creating a syllabus, a rubric. I have always found my way back to dialogue, back to communion, through writing and journaling.  Thus, a large part of my processing will be through journaling, and through writing to you’all.  Most of my communication with you’all will be through email, but when I have the opportunity I’ll drop in and hopefully get to chat about what you’all are learning.  Feel free to write me anytime, I would enjoy additional dialogue.      

I’ve also developed a reading list of books I am hoping to include in my studies this year.  As a part of my final presentation, I’ll provide an annotated bibliography of the books I end up reading.

1. Allende, Isabel. The House of Spirits.
2. Bachmann, Ingeborg. The Thirtieth Year.
3. Campbell, Joseph. Myths to Live By: How we re-create ancient legends in our daily lives to release human potential.
4. Cheng, Nien. Life and Death in Shanghai.
5. Danticat, Edwidge. Krik? Krak!
6. Diamant, Anita. Good Harbor.
7. Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.
8. Dillard, Annie. The Living.
9. Djebar, Assia. Women of Algiers in Their Apartment.
10. Dudley, Michael Kioni and Keoni Kealoha Agard. A Call For Hawaiian Sovereignty.
11. Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.
12. Esteves, Carmen C. and Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert eds. Green Cane Juicy Flotsam: Short Stories by Caribbean Women.
13. Fonseca, Isabel. Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey.
14. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland.  
15. Glassner, Barry. [The Culture of Fear] Why Americans are Afraid of The Wrong Things: Crime, Drugs, Minorities, Teen Moms, Killer Kids, Mutant Microbes, Plane Crashes, Road Rage, and So Much More.
16. Golden, Arthur. Memoirs of a Geisha.
17. Heilbroner, Robert and Lester Thurow. Economics Explained: Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works and Where It’s Going.
18. Hilbert, Vi (translator and editor). Haboo: Native American Stories from Puget Sound.         
19. Hoffman, Enid. Huna: A Beginner’s Guide.
20. Iwasaki, Mineko with Rande Brown. Geisha, A Life.
21. Iyer, Pico. The Lady and The Monk.
22. Keen, Sam and Anne Valley-Fox. Your Mythic Journey: Finding Meaning in Your Life Through Writing and Storytelling.
23. Kidd, Sue Monk. The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine.
24. Kincaid, Jamaica. The Autobiography of My Mother.
25. Kingsolver, Barbara. Prodigal Summer.
26. Kingsolver, Barbara. Small Wonder.
27. Lamott, Anne. Crooked Little Heart.
28. Lamott, Anne. Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year.
29. Le, Linda. Slander.
30. Levy, Marion Fennelly. Each in her Own Way: Five Women Leaders of the Developing World.
31. Manicka, Rani. The Rice Mother.
32. McBride, James. The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother.
33. Mehta, Gita. Snakes and Ladders: Glimpses of Modern India.
34. Mihesuah, Devon A. editor. Natives and Academics: Researching and Writing about American Indians.
35. Moix, Ana Maria. Dangerous Virtues.
36. Passanante, Joy. Sinning in Italy.
37. Prather, Hugh. Notes to Myself: My struggle to become a person.
38. Ransom, Bill. Learning the Ropes: A Creative Autobiography.
39. Sandoval, Chela. Methodology of the Oppressed.
40. Sasson, Jean. Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Weil in Saudi Arabia.
41. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation.
42. Shostak, Marjorie. NISA: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman.
43. Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony.
44. Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples.
45. Spurlock, Morgan. Don’t Eat this Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America.
46. Sterling, Dorothy editor. We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century.
47. Tiwari, Maya. Ayurveda: A Life of Balance.
48. Tolle, Eckhart. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.
49. Von Tempski, Armine. Born in Paradise.
50. Weinberg, Sydney Stahl. The World of Our Mothers: The Lives of Jewish Immigrant Women.

Finally, I will add workshops, activities, or travel that I believe will enhance what I am learning through reading and writing.

What do I plan to learn?

This is my senior year; I plan on reconciling all my past education with my current education while I’m in the process of reconciling with essential truths of my reality.  I plan on learning other stories, and through such wisdom learn more about my own.

What difference will it make?

On a personal level, I desire a cohesive understanding of where I am, and what I want to do with my education when I graduate.  Thus, essentially, this program with solidify my goals while enhancing skills and education that I already have or might need.  On a social level, if I’m internally balanced then I will approach the world in a more thoughtful, helpful, joyful manner.  If I’m internally grounded, I can be outwardly interactive.  The blessings of internal reconciliation will overflow into all aspects of my life and my interaction with the world.