I do have one very relevant question for those who read the Among Worlds blog - and your response(s) would be greatly appreciated!
What topics do you feel need to be addressed by the authors who contribute to the magazine?
I feel it is very important to hear back from others as to what topic YOU feel needs to be critiqued/written about. If you are not yet a subscriber to the Among Worlds magazine, your voice about topics is also important - so don't allow that to hold back your ideas! :-)
While you are cogitating over your response, I am going to make a post office run (what a strange expression - "make" a post office "run"? - yet many folks employ this phrase!).
Later!
Margie
8 comments:
You might include some lighter material, like that issue (can't remember which) when people wrote in about the strangest food they'd eaten, or prepared? No, I think it was about faux pas. . .maybe. Anyways, you could include a section about strange pets we've had, perhaps even pets we've been forced to leave, since many of us ended up crying more about the pets that the people we left. (Actually I think when I cried for the pet, it was a mourning for many other things as well.)
You could include a bit about scarey experiences, or percieved scarey experiences living in unstable countries, etc.
Lisa McKay's article in the last issue was fun--we've all had unwanted advances by guys who just want a visa.
Anyways, for what it's worth!
The restless/moving syndrome that TCKs seem to get every few years
A poetry corner where we can send in poems we've written about our experiences.
Political leanings for TCKs who, perhaps due to immersion in many cultures, might be on the fence politically speaking for most if not all their lives...(maybe too sensitive?)
So on a lighter note, perhaps a little trivia / game section with prizes (TCK stickers, TCK t-shirts, magnets...)?
Poetry..that's a nice one Twiga92! I liked that idea. Pets...yeah I actually wrote a post recently on that issue Cuibana...sigh.
my vote is for more of the 'avoiding dealing with grief, so i will solve it by pulling a geographic, except i know its not the way i will ever resolve my unsaid goodbyes, but darn it, i cant seem to resist the impulse'. you should probably go with a shorter title, though ;) otherwise its like "the princess and the pea", each move is like a new mattress to lay on top of the "pea", but you still wind up feeling black, blue and bruised in the morning! i guess its like the people who have back problems and they think buying a new mattress is the solution, but perhaps what they really need to do is take ownership of their own body and do the "work" of strengthening themselves instead of looking for solutions outside of themselves.
I think you've already done one on relationships (actually you've addressed many aspects of relationships separately), but you could do something about the difficulties that some of us have in forming strong romantic relationships -- whether it's due to cultural misunderstandings, or some of the problems that I'm sure we share with monocultural people such as fear of abandonment, reluctance to be vulnerable, etc. And you could include some encouraging stories from people who have overcome those issues.
Cuiabana: Interesting that you mention pets - while at the FIGT conference, I met some folks whose primary business is to take care of the handling of your pets so they (the pet(s)) can be with you as you move! So yes, that is a good subject
Twiga: Restlessness and Poetry - sounds like poetry in motion! Did I just hear a loud groan? Good ideas, though!
Karma: I like the idea of games or trivia - would you care to put together a sampling? We touched a little on political leanings in the issue concerning "Prejudice". Do others see this as something we need to further explore?
Disa: Grief...that was one of the first topics we addressed - but I think we may need to look at it again. Grief and Hidden Losses - both sensitive issues!
Anon: You're right - relationships are an on-going part of our lives and all of them encounter ups and downs.
I am writing all of these ideas down - so keep coming with your thoughts on new ideas or deeper/greater exploration of past ones.
Margie
My first thought was, 'who is your audience?', in terms of the average age, life-stage, ethnicity, and background of Among World's readers. That may help to focus future topics. Something I'd be interested in is learning about TCKs from non-North American, and preferably non-Western, ethnicities. I recently met someone who runs a web-based group for Korean MKs, and I'm excited to learn of their experiences which undoubtedly contain vast differences from my own (born Canadian, and raised in Europe).
At mkPLANET, we've gotten quite a bit of helpful feedback from our members (mostly MKs of all ages) about the topic areas they enjoy, and it seems they appreciate a variety. Cuiabana hit on one aspect, namely infusing the serious with the light-hearted. Poetry is also popular, as twiga mentioned. Games are widely enjoyed as well. As for finding fun activities suitable for magazines: contests, trivia, or surveys/polls might work, and may lead to further discussion as well. :)
Sensitive or not, our members seem to enjoy politics, which is why karma's suggestion caught my attention. I, for one, would be very interested in learning about the way TCKs' international experiences have affected their political perspectives.
As for revisiting already-covered topics, such as the experience of grief or relationships among TCKs, it can't hurt - you never know how the emerging generation of TCKs may view or handle those issues differently than previous generations, OR you may discover surprises among the mature (i.e. 'older') TCKs whose situations, perspectives, or coping methods have changed over time.
Thanks for posing this question to us, Margie, it certainly got me thinking and I will look forward to reading future issues of Among Worlds! :)
- Dana
i like Cuiabana's ideas too - the light-hearted things are fun to hear or read. We'd do that kind of thing at our Mu Kappa events sometimes. :) it's always fun to learn about others who've had a similar or maybe even worse experience or faux pas than yourself! :))
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