One of you kind souls out there, after praising my website, also wrote: "Would like to "hear" your own voice more there." And a second soul as kind as the first one observed that I "had alluded to it as being a physical symbol of a metaphor for you regarding teaching and relationship""  That was the rubs on my shoulder I needed to start the writing on the birdbox metaphor. (Honestly, this project had been a bread in the stove for some time, and I was lucky that got that triggering kick on the leg.) Since I started (3^rd April) nice netfriends, like I just told, have given so many encouraging comments to my writing "phases". All this generous support makes me go on and try to bring this project somewhere, maybe one day to fulfill this step by step interactive essay.

The writing got a flying start without very much planning and structuring, and has continued the stepping on the nearest stone way. However, now then, what is this "metaphor" about? What is the meaning of it? A metaphor may be an intimate thing, but when I publish a text about it, I should also explain a bit to share it with you and have it for an exchange conveyance.

I think that all the time since being a kid I have had a thong of the scientist’s skin, always with a great interest of the small thing’s story. Like other kids I was making lots of researches, indoor and outdoor, and my father was also sort of that mind. Especially it was a great thrill to collect what might happen to be on the road’s shoulder, to identify and register the finding, all the time being convinced that every little part is unique. You will never find the absolutely and totally equal twin of anything! And then comes how absolutely everything are connected to each other in so many ways.

OK, little by little, after some crisscrossing, I became a teacher, and slowly I became aware how the pupils were treated in a two ways way – they are personalities, who should be respected and paid attention to, and have their rights, but they also are individuals who should take notice of the collective demands, and they should behave. This crossing point of principles will cause a real cross fire to the teacher’s mind, and to behave as a "teacher", he will tend to make the pupils behave i.e. they should more or less reproduce and be an echo to what is taught by a one way communication.

However, after confusing myself and the pupils by having only one eye open and by this filling the jar pedagogy, I slowly made room for what the pupils are and what they have. This slowly opening both of my eyes, made me see that pupils are not only a crowd, but even more they are one by one characters. The final years of my teaching in school I tried rather energetic to bring my teaching into a mental ecological balance by training myself in looking for and approach the pupil’s resources, knowledge, talents, interests, skills and personality, - and this focussing made the birdbox metaphor unveil itself. It became a "model" on how freedom should be respected and given the basic importance, and that the freedom asks for a caring responsibility and a nurturing framework. And I tell you, this great discovery did not make life easier, but for sure gave much more meaning and joy.

Retired - and counseling

Two years ago, summer 2001, I finished in school and retired. At the same time I started Hugen counseling service. It is by a small scale, but running for real. After leaving my students, who could be quite a collective crowd, and now welcoming my clients, who are coming individually one by one, I experience even stronger the helping hand given me by the birdbox metaphor: The box, which is a spiritual device, is constructed by its mental walls and designed into dimensions by personal needs. It helps me trust life itself when we are willing to pay each other mutual respect and a caring support.

And then comes all the practical questions and challenges: How to do it in practical counseling? What should Hugen’s adverts read when thery appear in the local papers? How to be an active listener not listening both client and advisor astray? How to structure the personal projects? How to write the logbook? How to maintain a process, how to find the right way when alternatives show up? What to do when all ways out are blocked? When being patient, when being impatient?