Motivation
Sadly, it isn't often that I feel inspired by a course reading. But I frequently forget why it is that I'm doing what I'm doing and what got me into it in the first place. This quote from Helen Perlman brought me back to a piece of it this evening:
"There is probably no problem in human living that has not been brought to social workers in social agenices. Problems of hunger for food and of hunger for love, of seeking shelter and of wanting to run away, of getting married and of staying married, of wanting a child and of wanting to get rid of a child, of needing money and of wasting money, of not wanting to live and of not wanting to die, of making enemies and of needing friends, of wanting and of not wanting medication, of loving and of being unloved, of hating and of being hated, of being unable to get a job and of being unable to hold a job, of feeling afraid, of feeling useless - all these, and the many other problems of physical and emotional suvival as a human being, come to the door of the social agency."
I guess it's this complicated and consternating nexus of human need and the potential for intervention and change converged in the social agency (broadly defined) that fascinates and, at least in part, motivates me to become a social work scholar.
By the way, wasn't Helen just lovely? And she got her BA in English Lit at the U of M to boot!