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From: Hara Behk
Date: 22 Oct 2004
Time: 12:54:40 -0500
Remote Name: 149.4.47.62
Shame is something familiar to each culture. Having been raised in a Korean American immigrant family (with parents having 1970s values of old Korea), I have seen what shame is within a group setting and what it can do. This shame is a by-product of not being "normal." In turn, being normal means being healthy, which leads to more acceptance. In grade school, my older sister received speech therapy for a lisp. Being where I am now (a student aspiring to be an SLP), I want to really ask my parents how they felt when this happened. Were they angry? Were they ashamed? Or, were they indifferent? The important concept here is that being different does not mean you are not healthy. However, people are prone to do just this. Thinking about challenges (that makes one person different from another) without shame is a valuable milestone for everyone to experience. For the author to make this confession--"I still stutter but I do so without shame"--if profound. He lives without denying his challenge, but accepting it, without a cloud of undeserved shame shaping his life, dreams, and goals.