After reading ‘Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee’, I learnt the term ‘Spoonies’ from a little further reading described as ‘the experience of living with a chronic disease or illness, with “spoons” representing units of energy available to those people over the course of a day.’ The written piece shares an inspiring and powerful practitioner’s touring experience. It demonstrates a strength in resilience, whilst simultaneously being transparent of the costs in ‘pain’ which were experienced in real time over the course of presenting work internationally. It inspires me as a practitioner, to ask questions and always to ask for help. As Khairani says “never forget nor underestimate the need we all have at times to ask for help, to treat self-care as paramount, and to do justice to our needs in our own work, particularly if we don’t see ourselves represented, and if we put pressure on ourselves as representation.” As a BAME senior lecturer, in most cases I feel that I must be Brilliant in all that I do, because subconsciously I am wired to know that I am a representation of a people. So, asking for help doesn’t always come naturally.
I already share the SMART acronym (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) with students introducing time-frames relevant for their personal work-ethics. Supporting the planning and operational process within the space of a Unit of study. However, to integrate an excerpt of Khairani’s article would be encouraging to communicate a spoonies perspective, whereby opening a dialogue to students, for I may be able to reach a wider audience, for some of my students maybe spoonies, unless they choose to disclose in an ISA and then this is shared with me. So, with me sharing the story, it’s a response to an inclusive pedagogical step forward.
“I was representing a country, a gender, and our minority community of disabled people – disabled people being, however, the largest minority in the world.”…“Understanding that lack of treatment and recognition of pain’s severity, particularly for brown women in Western countries, and for women in countries whose healthcare systems are inadequate, breed terrible suffering, not least in the form of becoming used to not being understood as suffering.”
The above two quotes from Khairani make me consider how many of our brown undergraduate students may be suffering in our Colleges? Unless we recognise and respond to making ‘Invisible suffering Visible’ with support in the correct context, our students will continue to suffer. Let us be aware that pain can be invisible and be inclusive to know that our role is to support all our students.
(“The Spoon Theory” image taken from: https://www.inclusionhub.com/articles/glimpse-into-the-world-of-a-professional-spoony)