Elaine Kennedy has been part of Edges for the last ten years.  Ten years ago we put together our
first ‘Edges’ magazine, a new and most exciting experience. I often
wonder about the baby shown on our first front cover, who must be going on
eleven years of age now! Although the format and the look of the magazine have changed over the decade, the ethos remains constant – to look at marginalisation and give a voice to people who would otherwise have no means of being heard. Over the decade, ‘Edges’ has covered an incredible diversity of human experience. The words ‘the marginalised’ are often used to talk about homeless people, drug addicts and the socially excluded. Over the years I came to discover that marginalisation includes a vast range of the human condition. Spiritual and emotional marginalisation are very real too and are rife amongst people who would not consider themselves as ‘marginalised’. I do believe that we are all marginalised in some way or other by what we have done to life and life has done to us. This comes through so clearly in most articles written for ‘Edges’. At some point in our existence, we all find ourselves on the outside looking in, on the edge of something rather than in the centre where we long to be. It could be suffering remorse for a past misdemeanour; longing to belong to a social group, wishing events had been or could have been different; resenting the way a parent treated us; lost opportunities; feeling unfulfilled; wasted talents; above all a broken heart. Nothing keeps us more on the edge than an aching heart. Where is my child? Why did they feel unloved? Where is my family now? Do they still love me in spite of my awful behaviour towards them when I was on drugs? Will they ever forgive and be reconciled? Why was I so blind to what was going on? Could I have prevented my loved one from destroying their life? Where do I turn for help? How do I open up to the truth? Can baring my soul help anyone else? Who will reach out to me? Who will really want to help and not judge me badly? Why was my childhood so difficult? Will I ever stop letting my anger for my past affect my present life? Where do I find God in my brokenness? To feel marginalised is to feel devalued in some area of one’s being. I feel that the human race spends more energy on devaluing than valuing one another, which is the basic cause of our brokenness. How often people tell of their childhood: I was told I was stupid, not as bright as my brother, teachers would say I was slow, disruptive, a nuisance, an under-achiever, clumsy, can’t even catch a ball. If only a child could answer back: but I have the same creative intelligence as every other human on the planet, I have potential, talents, uniqueness, of course I’m different from my brother, I’m me, not him! Look into my eyes and see the person I am. The more you suppress me the less I believe in myself and the more I recede into a rutt. Why do we do these things to each other? If each child ever born was encouraged and stimulated to their full potential what an amazing place the world would be! Yet somehow we leave out the golden ingredient of encouragement and the result is mediocre, unfulfilled existences. ‘Edges’ has had a stream of articles over the years written by adults who have told of childhoods spent festering in muddled, un-stimulated existences leading to frustrated adulthoods with no notion of self-worth. All have ended up by hitting out at society and taking drugs and alcohol in excess. They become parents to children and the whole tragic cycle rolls on. William Blake wrote – O! father and mother, if buds are nip’d And blossoms blown away And if the tender plants are strip’d Of their joy in the springing day. By sorrow and care’s dismay, How shall the summer arise in joy, Or the summer fruits appear? Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy? Thus the miracle of who we are remains locked away and only one’s socially unacceptable side remains to identify us. But there is always more to people than the worst thing they have ever done and ‘Edges’ has shown many people who have unlocked the miracle of who they are, even after a lifetime. Those articles are the positive stuff of which the uniqueness of ‘Edges’ magazine is made ‘ the magazine remains a publication devoted to the miracle and uniqueness of the individual and their right to be acknowledged. It has been a wonderful privilege to be part of the editorial team throughout. I have been lucky to be able to explore and share my own frail human experience in my regular articles. To share and accept our broken-ness, yours and mine, is the way to healing, growth and fulfilment. Here’s to ‘Edges’ next decade!! |
