Another way to think about both the sociologist's and the
celebrant's imagination is through a focus on auto/biography. The / is
important here. Auto/biography acknowledges that when we write and speak of the
life of another aspects of our self (in terms of our views, opinions,
experience, relationship with the person in question and so on) influence what
we say. Similarly, when we write and speak about our own life the lives of
others are significant in that we position ourselves as similar to, different
from, influenced by (and so on) both historical and contemporary others. All of
this is relevant to a celebrant’s practice. There are other shared concerns such
as the importance of ritual at significant points of the life course; a focus
on identity and how this might differ, not least with reference to age,
ethnicity, gender; and of course social networks and networking.
The process by which we acquire and in turn pass on the skills and habits that we need to observe in order to fit into the society, or subsections of society, within which we live, work, and play is referred to in sociology as socialisation. Socialisation is of course a lifelong experience as is our experience
of education. My formal learning lasted longer than for some as I returned to
higher education in my late twenties after training and practising as a nursery
nurse for 10 years. My work as a teacher
and a researcher has given me the opportunity not only to continue to learn
about the auto/biographies of others but to learn from them also. My interests
are quite eclectic and amongst other things I’ve taught, researched and written
about reproduction (including pregnancy loss and infertility), pregnancy and
parenthood, working and learning in higher education, travel and transport (I’m
writing this on the train by the way) and crime. I sometimes tell students that
in order to do well at sociology one of the most important things to be is
nosy. Nosiness has certainly worked for me. A particularly significant group of people in
my professional life have been the friends and colleagues I have met through
the British Sociological Association (BSA), not least those members of the BSA
Auto/Biography Study Group. It is with the help of these folk that I have
developed my own sociological imagination and, I think, I hope, a sense of
humility regarding all there is left to learn.
My most recent educational opportunity has been my Civil
Celebrant training with UKSOC and I’ve written previously (Three Funerals and a
Wedding, 24th October 2014) about how fulfilling I found this.
Significant here is how, for me, the experience helped me to make connections
with and draw on and further develop skills acquired within my sociological undertakings
and also my work as a nursery nurse. All of these occupations are people
focused, are creative and require imagination. How privileged am I, as a civil
celebrant, to be able to engage in this type of auto/biographical practice and
to learn about and from the people whose lives are central to the ceremonies I
am involved with. I’m too much of a sociologist to think of this opportunity,
this life course development as natural and inevitable but I feel fortunate
that my life experiences and life chances have come together in this way.
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