Reading group enables internal and external reflection

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — In today’s hectic world, people are often very busy with personal and work obligations. In these fast-paced conditions individuals don’t always take the time to pause and reflect on some of the aspects of their lives and the lives of others.

    Over the last few months a Maine Humanities Council reading and discussion group offered participants the opportunity to reflect, as the participants read fiction and non-fiction novels, short stories, poems and essays from a syllabus created specifically for the program. They then met to talk about the various readings and the ensuing discussions often led to conversations about the participants’ own lives and the world at large.
    “The Maine Humanities Council has for some years been doing literature and medicine discussion groups,” said Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance Program Manager Cindy Freeman Cyr. “The intent of that from the Maine Humanities Council’s perspective was to provide support in an enriching environment.” She explained for those working in the health care field this enabled them “to slow down and think about what they are doing.”
    The reading groups have been heavily successful, and Freeman Cyr said in 2013 the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence was approached by the Maine Humanities Council to offer similar programs. A Dover-Foxcroft-based reading group offered through the Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance was one of four such programs selected.
    “Everybody was excited about that,” Freeman Cyr said. “The intent was to invite people who work across different disciplines so we invited people from schools, law enforcement, clergy, staff from here and we had about 23 people say they would really like to be a part. Our core group is 15 which I think is amazing.”
    From March to June the group met every three weeks in the evening at the Thompson Free Library —group members thanked the library for use of its space. Dr. Mazie Hough, associate director of the Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Program and assistant professor of history and women’s studies at the University of Maine, served as a facilitator for the sessions in which participants only revealed their first names and could get up from the group whenever they chose to. Those taking part were also not required to read everything.
    “As much as the readings relate to the work we are doing, the humanities just broadens,” said reading group member Joan Shapleigh, adding the subject matter provided participants with many different perspectives.
    “I think there’s so many lessons for us but one is complexity of human relationships,” Freeman Cyr said. “We can all read the same story and have different perspectives on it.” She said one possible outcome from the group could be a physician thinking more about health care from a patient’s point of view and not just as a provider.
    “It’s sometimes hard not to get frustrated such as a physician with a diabetic patient not taking care of themselves,” Freeman Cyr mentioned as an example. “It’s that kind of peeling away, why is it that folks make the decisions they do.”
    Shapleigh said change may not always be a possibility, as was indicated in the group’s reading of Jeannette Walls’ memoir “The Glass Castle” in which she and her siblings learned to be self-sufficient while their parents did not. “You just work with the family as they are,” she said.
    “We all do bring something totally different to the books,” group member Jayne Lello said with the perspectives not just coming from the texts. Freeman Cyr said several men were part of the group, saying their presence added more points of view to the discussions which often covered many topics ranging from the authors’ descriptions in the readings to national politics and issues.
    “It’s a lovely gift we have been given by the Maine Humanities Council,” Lello said. Freeman Cyr added the council lent copies of the books and provided electronic copies of other readings, and “it’s been free to all of us.”
    “I think people are hungry for more meaningful conversations,” Freeman Cyr said, saying that thanks to the Maine Humanities this has been possible. She said another reading group may be held in the later winter/early spring of 2015.