aftermath: "The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past."
I've been wanting to write a blog post for a while, but I've been so overwhelmed by the variety of experiences I'd want to share with you all, I never know where to start, and so nothing goes up.
A few events do feel linked by the concept of aftermath. The quote in the title is from William Faulkner.
As I mentioned previously, I was at a two day trauma workshop the week before last. One particularly interesting bit was about how we process memories. How normally it's one part of the brain (the rational bit), but at times of high emotion the lower brain kicks in, which is why sometimes people don't have memories, or have fragments, or have abnormally clear memories, of traumatic events. I'm not trying to be particularly clear science-wise, but somehow for your lower brain, there is no linear time, there is only now, so if your memories are built while that brain's going strong, 'the past isn't past.' Which obviously, is crucial in trauma recovery.
That Tuesday evening I was at my regular bi-monthly Jewish/Christian dialogue circle, and it was eerie how one woman especially embodied everything I'd just learned about individuals who have internalized and carried on cultural trauma. I'm glad I saw that behaviour in the context of the circle though, because instead of having it lead me to say, 'Judaism! Prime example of internalized cultural trauma!' I actually saw several other folk who clearly had not internalized the trauma in a dysfunctional way, but because they shared common story with this woman, were able to talk her into a slightly healthier way of feeling. Question raised: Why do some individuals process historical trauma more constructively than others?
Just this last Monday I was at an evening were a group presented a report on the question of truth recovery in Northern Ireland. This event raised ambivalent feelings for me, because it was on the one hand, just another gorgeous report, and who will read it? On the other hand, they were so practical and realistic, and they were trying to concretely address the pitfalls of trying to rebuild a healthier society, after decades of fear and violence.
This Friday was also the one year anniversary of the CPT hostages being released. Here we celebrated with the publication of Norman Kember's book (Hostage in Iraq), and a vigil to remember Tom Fox, as well as to protest the ongoing violence in Iraq.
I could probably write my own book about all the quandries and memories these events raise for me.
I obviously need to read the book, but the media hype that has trailed Norman since his return frustrates me. I know as well as the next peacenik the importance of the media and the need to capitalize on it when it comes your way. At the same time, I hate seeing it threaten to swallow someone. And how hard it is to maintain the truth of their actions and intentions in its intentionally twisting light.
On top of that, I've really struggled here with how people (for the record, not at all Norman himself, but all the people like me, who are a couple of degrees removed) have latched so strongly onto their local hero, they have no view at all of the other hostages, let alone Tom Fox, or why CPT was in Iraq. We should clearly celebrate Norman's release, but shouldn't we also still be passionately working around the issues what made him go to Iraq to begin with?
I'm probably more worked up about this because, chatting with a friend after the book launch, he mentioned Tom Fox, and I realized how even for me, the entire crisis last year has become emobodied in Norman. Tom Fox's family will continue to grieve indefinitely. And in a purely self-centred way, learning about Tom Fox's death was a turning point for me in deciding to come here and work for CPT. How could I have lost sight of these things?
In any case, it's been a week of being confronted by "undead" memories. But it's also been a week where I've witnessed first hand people choosing to live constructively with the past.
And on a completely different note:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~marekm/projects/beatbots/
I'm not sure if this is the cutest, or most disturbing thing I've seen since sliced bread. Contrary to some opinions, I don't think it diminishes the need for real children.
And on another, yet vaguely related note:
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/03/the_banality_of.html
A few events do feel linked by the concept of aftermath. The quote in the title is from William Faulkner.
As I mentioned previously, I was at a two day trauma workshop the week before last. One particularly interesting bit was about how we process memories. How normally it's one part of the brain (the rational bit), but at times of high emotion the lower brain kicks in, which is why sometimes people don't have memories, or have fragments, or have abnormally clear memories, of traumatic events. I'm not trying to be particularly clear science-wise, but somehow for your lower brain, there is no linear time, there is only now, so if your memories are built while that brain's going strong, 'the past isn't past.' Which obviously, is crucial in trauma recovery.
That Tuesday evening I was at my regular bi-monthly Jewish/Christian dialogue circle, and it was eerie how one woman especially embodied everything I'd just learned about individuals who have internalized and carried on cultural trauma. I'm glad I saw that behaviour in the context of the circle though, because instead of having it lead me to say, 'Judaism! Prime example of internalized cultural trauma!' I actually saw several other folk who clearly had not internalized the trauma in a dysfunctional way, but because they shared common story with this woman, were able to talk her into a slightly healthier way of feeling. Question raised: Why do some individuals process historical trauma more constructively than others?
Just this last Monday I was at an evening were a group presented a report on the question of truth recovery in Northern Ireland. This event raised ambivalent feelings for me, because it was on the one hand, just another gorgeous report, and who will read it? On the other hand, they were so practical and realistic, and they were trying to concretely address the pitfalls of trying to rebuild a healthier society, after decades of fear and violence.
This Friday was also the one year anniversary of the CPT hostages being released. Here we celebrated with the publication of Norman Kember's book (Hostage in Iraq), and a vigil to remember Tom Fox, as well as to protest the ongoing violence in Iraq.
I could probably write my own book about all the quandries and memories these events raise for me.
I obviously need to read the book, but the media hype that has trailed Norman since his return frustrates me. I know as well as the next peacenik the importance of the media and the need to capitalize on it when it comes your way. At the same time, I hate seeing it threaten to swallow someone. And how hard it is to maintain the truth of their actions and intentions in its intentionally twisting light.
On top of that, I've really struggled here with how people (for the record, not at all Norman himself, but all the people like me, who are a couple of degrees removed) have latched so strongly onto their local hero, they have no view at all of the other hostages, let alone Tom Fox, or why CPT was in Iraq. We should clearly celebrate Norman's release, but shouldn't we also still be passionately working around the issues what made him go to Iraq to begin with?
I'm probably more worked up about this because, chatting with a friend after the book launch, he mentioned Tom Fox, and I realized how even for me, the entire crisis last year has become emobodied in Norman. Tom Fox's family will continue to grieve indefinitely. And in a purely self-centred way, learning about Tom Fox's death was a turning point for me in deciding to come here and work for CPT. How could I have lost sight of these things?
In any case, it's been a week of being confronted by "undead" memories. But it's also been a week where I've witnessed first hand people choosing to live constructively with the past.
And on a completely different note:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~marekm/projects/beatbots/
I'm not sure if this is the cutest, or most disturbing thing I've seen since sliced bread. Contrary to some opinions, I don't think it diminishes the need for real children.
And on another, yet vaguely related note:
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/03/the_banality_of.html
posted by dm at 9:17 AM
1 Comments:
I am guessing that Norman would be quite exasperated by people elevating him to a hero and focusing only on him at the expense of his friends and the reasons he was there. Is there a way of gently reminding people of this? On the other hand, I guess human beings seem to be naturally hero worshipers, and if you told them not to focus so much on Norman maybe they would just stop caring about the events altogether.
-A
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