sidebar: i wonder what it is that makes a blog famous.

there are a few that i check up on pretty frequently-

ones that i found through friends of friends.

the writers are geniuses (in my humble opinion)

theveryworstmissionary.com

theorganicbirdblog.com

i mean i don't read crap. i'm rather picky actually. i don't waste my eyes/time for nothing--

well except grad school research. sigh.

all that scientific crap makes a soul thirsty for words that have, well, soul. but anyways--

that's not really what i wanted write about...entirely.

it is...and it's not.

i'm reading a lot of things that tell me what's wrong with the world in this graduate-school-stage-of-life. social work is all too often more about diagnosing the problem than actually solving it. after all, we have a whole manual of disorders. some of them really make me wonder if we know what a healthy person looks like in our western society. or if this whole act of classifying is really doing us any good.

by creating more and more disorders to classify what is 'wrong' with people, we also let them off the hook. we give them an excuse not to take responsibility for their actions, especially parents for their children. i fully recognize and believe that there are individuals with chemical imbalances that contribute to their perspective on the world and how they cope with stress. we live in an incredibly broken world--physically, emotionally, and mentally. can't be a social worker and deny that.

but somehow i wonder if we're missing the point (and i suppose a humanistic degree such as social work would miss this point). for instead of diagnosing the individual to give them an excuse, or at the very least an explanation, for their behavior, emotions, or mental state, shouldn't it drive us to wonder what the root of the problem really is?

all of these disorders are only symptoms of a much deeper issue. they beg us to ask the questions: what does a healthy human being look like? how does an emotionally stable individual behave? what are healthy relationships made of?

for how can we call these individuals broken without taking a fine tooth comb to our own lives?

in the same token, i've also been experiencing a lot of criticism, not of myself in particular, but of life by those around me outside of the social work program. and it begs me to ask the same question: how can you call these individuals wrong/weird/broken/lost without examining your own life?

where has our humility gone?

behind our good intentions lurks a pride we dare deny;

a self-righteousness clothed in humanistic efforts to save others.

why?

because we have deemed them in need of saving.

when maybe they have been placed here to show us that we are the ones really in need of saving.

i long for words of life and truth--words with soul that are honest and transparent. the criticism, it drains me. it leaves me empty and hollow. the judgment--parched. the self-righteousness--weary. dear God, how we need life to flow through our words.

may life flow through mine.