Love, No Matter What

I came across this TED talk via author Heidi Durrow's blog Light-skinned-ed Girl: a mixed chick's mixed thoughts on a mixed-up world.

Andrew Solomon is author of the book Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity and in this TED talk he discusses "what is it like to raise a child who's different from you in some fundamental way (like a prodigy, or a differently abled kid, or a criminal)?"

Heidi Durrow wrote that his talk speaks to blended and multiracial families as well and there were several ideas about identity that resonated with conversations we have around CBBG.  

Solomon talks about two kinds of identity: vertical and horizontal.  

Vertical identity is things parents [usually] have in common with their children such as ethnicity, language, nationality, and religion.   

Horizontal identity is things we share with a peer group and around which a culture develops, for example, homosexuality, deafness, differing abilities.

Solomon explores how people negotiate difference within a family; how difference is accepted on three levels: self, family, social; and the strength of parental love.