Dear Sister
Thursday, June 7th, 2007
This is the piece I made for my sister during the digital storytelling workshop. When I showed Mum she cried… select quotes include “This is dynamite!” and “It could tear the family apart!” She said she was worried about the fact that people were identifiable (so I’ve blurred their faces) but she didn’t once address the content. I didn’t really get anywhere in defusing the situation and we finished with Mum saying “Well how did you expect me to react?” I said “I hoped you would be proud… I’m trying to start a positive discussion about it all… to mend some bridges…”
I was terrified about screening it for my sister and it was hard to find a time when the kids weren’t interuppting. I told her about the whole ‘pregnancy quest’ and doco stuff and tried to contextualise Mum’s reaction. Then I showed her everyone else’s piece…
When I finally I showed her mine, she cried… we hugged… she said she was sorry and that she’d had no idea that she’d hurt me. We agreed to ‘find a way to talk to the kids about it…’ That’s the last line in my piece and hopefully the first line in our families ongoing dialogue…
I still feel uncomfortable about being so brutally honest with them in a public space… I wonder how I’d feel if the tables were turned? I’d want the right to respond, but hopefully I’d accept the subjective emotional truth of what was being said. Isn’t that how the healing begins?
Has anyone else experienced stuff like this? How did you/they process it? Does putting it out there - in conversation with friends or in a social context on-line - make it better or worse?
