Mind Matters: Re-spect in the New Year?

Here it is: Winter solstice time, when the northern hemisphere faces the darkest days of the year with various celebrations of light. Meanwhile, I sit in Cambridge, Mass., awaiting the arrival of my first grandchild. When this column appears, hopefully she will have been born and we will all be headed into a new year.

What sort of a new year will it portend for the next generation? What will we bequeath to the newborns among us?

Recently, on a walk to Harvard Square, my son-in-law pointed out the beauty of a stained glass door he had not noticed even though he had passed it many times. This brought to mind for me, the word re-spect, which at its root means to look again, to see more fully. What is necessary for re-spect to flourish is an atmosphere of awareness rather than denial; consciousness rather than ignorance.

Ironically, less than a block from the newly seen door, was an installation at the Harvard Art Museum of Sister Corita Kent’s pop art.

As must every artist, Roman Catholic nun Corita, in the 1960’s to the 1980’s, re-spected the world and helped us all “see again.” However, her cultural icons spun the mundane signs of everyday commercialism and consumerism into sacred and social justice messages. She transformed advertising slogans and supermarket signs into modern art with a message. For example the 1960’s General Mills adage, “The big G stands for goodness” took on a God-spiritual-meaning for Corita.

Since Corita’s work also confronted ending the war in Vietnam, and racism and segregation in the United States, what would her projects reflect today? What would she want us to re-spect for the newborns among us?

Now I am studying ads and pretending to “channel” Corita. For a car ad that says “top of the heap” would she somehow invert the message to be about inequality? Wow, there is even a luxury car ad that shouts out, “Look twice.” Corita might straight forwardly employ this message to urge the viewers to pay attention to climate change before it is too late.

Or how would she transform a hamburger ad that states, “it’ll blow your mind away?” Would this prompt Corita to call us to expand our awareness?

Corita might enjoy working with an ad campaign that calls upon African American women to “imagine a future.” She would, however, ask everyone to imagine a future where discrimination is obsolete and where no one experiences dis-re-spect. She would counter denial of climate change too.

Maybe Corita would collaborate with Pope Francis and superimpose his words over baby ads: “human induced climate change is a scientific reality, and its decisive mitigation is a moral and religious imperative for humanity.”

What we choose to do now will reverberate for generations to come. Babies are indeed us!

* The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ownership or management of Chadds Ford Live. We welcome opposing viewpoints. Readers may comment in the comments section or they may submit a Letter to the Editor to: [email protected]

About Kayta Gajdos

Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.