One never knows where or when the lightbulb of social consciousness will switch on. For me, it all began in the third grade, tucked away in a lone corner of the school library, engrossed in stories of abuse, torture, abandonment, greed, starvation and, then, hope, gentleness and love. While my little friends were reading “Heidi” and “Dr. Seuss,” I was wiping away tears of sadness and joy as I poured over “Black Beauty,” “My Friend Flicka,” “Thunderhead,” and a series of wild mustang stories where freedom and friendship ultimately vanquished evil on the open range.
I read every horse story in that library, and by the time I graduated from the sixth grade, the course of my life had been determined. My alignment with the abused and oppressed the world-over was given birth on those library shelves. The message of those stories carried me through the Civil Rights, Anti-Vietnam and Women’s Liberation movements, along with activism as a union member in the United Steelworkers Union. I can attribute my profession as a clinical social worker, specializing in the treatment of psychological trauma, to the seeds of empathy that were planted back then.
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Those stories built a bridge from an abhorrence of bullies on the written page to a vision of a world that embraces political, economic and social justice. I became a socialist, a humanist and a defender of the rights of all creatures on the planet. Who would have imagined that such tales could be so subversive?
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“Now that I have arrived at a certain age, I am fortunate to have the best of worlds. I divide my time between the high elevations of the Peruvian Andes where I write, and the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania, the coastal plain of North Carolina and the sparkling city of Los Angeles, where I am surrounded by my family of friends.”
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– Linda Nordquist, MSW, EMDR-II