Suzanne Westman:  

Life At the age of twenty-one, or somewhere near that, I distinctly remember writing a poem about how life is made of moments (splashes to be exact, green, yellow, red and sometimes blue.) I hypothesized that if you examined your life over time a pattern of straight lines would be revealed. My then husband, a development attaché for the Swedish government read my poem and became furious, for he insisted that you set a course in life and follow the most direct path i.e. you see the straight lines in front of you, not in hind-sight. Maybe, it was because of my youth, or more than likely it was because of my stigmatism, but I couldn’t see strait-lines, or for that matter, black and white. I swam in shades of gray and I was an edge feeder. In fact, I tend to migrate to where the edge is. Looking over the years, I am still convinced that life is made of moments, of red, blue and yellow and that they converge to reveal a path of straight lines. My path has unwaveringly been dedicated to working for the disenfranchised and under served. I believe that most people need a cause, a driving force outside and yet part of themselves that benefits the greater good. The lucky ones are born or inherit their cause. But, I didn’t feel so lucky. I was a white, middle class female, without a cause. I was driven, as if I had signed some kind of contract with myself to serve the underserved, to help ensure access to services and to somehow give a voice, (even if at times, it was only been a whisper) to those who are not usually heard. In 1970, I volunteered with Head Start to screen children with language disorders. In 1972, I worked for the Catholic school system in Lesotho. An ethnographer and I traveled throughout the country recording the songs and tales of each village, while simultaneously screening school-aged children for learning disabilities. Early on I realized that my training...Expand for more