Trauma is a tricky little thing
As I travel black home to myself I have more questions than answers. And I realize more and more that the answer to those questions are for me and they lead to more questions. The better I get at allowing the questions and answers to come and go the more I realize how individualized this experience called life is.
Me and my good girlfriend were discussing a new book she's reading called You Can't Hurt Me. This discussion led to a bigger discussion around healing from basically just living. I was going to use the word trauma but it seems that it is swallowed up in the word living. I have yet to meet a living human being who has not experienced trauma. That word seems so big and sophisticated. Often when it's used it sounds like a fraternity that must be pledged into with experiences such as war, rape, physical abuse etc. You know the big stuff that make heroes who get movies made and books written about them.
Trauma is a tricky little thing. It can be as subtle as a mosquito landing on your arm or as disruptive as having your world collapse. How we talk about trauma, identify it and qualify it has me questioning how how we relate to the subject of trauma affects how we relate to each other.
Since the reemergence of the Me Too movement I've been in conversations with women who have experienced healing while participating by saying me too and joining the conversation and others who have been re-traumatized after joining the conversation.
Right now we're in a time where many things that were held in great secrecy are now being acknowledged openly. Sexual abuse of children in the Catholic church, by Celebrities, through sex trafficking to name a few. Racist acts are being recorded for all to see and ordinary citizens are tracking down the identities of the players and demanding a response from their employers and community.
The Me Too movement is giving voice and face to what use to be just the way things are. Conscious directors have been producing documentaries, movies and tv shows that show us the things that we turn a blind eye to. All of this stirs up a lot of conversation.
Conversation, the thing that allows us to connect to one another, imprisoned by trauma causes war within and war without.