July 18, 2011
I have been basking in the summer heat… 
catching up on some research and and reflection, and most importantly–my family. July is the month that my granddaughter, Grace, visits… and we have been reading the American Girl book that introduces Kaya…an American Indian. And that is what made me think of today’s topic.
Chapter 2 of the book introducing Kaya, the title is ‘Switchings’, Kaya and all of the youngsters old enough to share in the responsibility for Kaya’s mistake [leaving her twin brothers when she was responsible for watching them] gets a ‘switching’ — that is, she must lay face down on the ground along with all of her peers and pull her clothing up on her legs to her knees. Then the ‘Whipwoman’–elected by the tribe to administer switchings to the youth–takes twigs from a tree and gives the children lashes. The message is that what one of them does affects all of them… So, the bad behavior of one gets all of them into trouble….
Grace is 7 years old… I asked her what she thought about everyone getting a switching because Kaya had done something wrong. She said that it was fair because Kaya went off with two boys to ride horses when she should’ve been watching her brothers. So, she said, those boys should be punished, too. What about the others, I asked What about some of the kids who were punished who were nowhere near the other three kids? It seems fair…what we do does affect everyone, and everyone should support us in doing the right thing…
Interesting. I considered that I might use this book in my health communication classes this year to capture the many meanings of responsibility and health. Personal responsibility, as illustrated here, has more meaning than just what and how our behaviors affect our own health… It affects others, including the nation’s health care costs. But it is impossible to be responsible when all around us are people and ways temptinig us to forget about what we know we should do. And when there seems to be no support on the other end–no one and no ways to achieve the right things… ‘Switchings’…it is a good metaphor for what we are doing to ourselves as a nation when it comes to health and health care…
