Orientation:

Dealing with Tragedy in the First World

Assistant Director Moses Baldwin here!

Thank you all for attending the first session of your entrance into the real world. We’ve been working tirelessly to get things up an running and we’re all very much glad to to have you here with us. By now you must be well aware of the cataclysm that has recently taken place. A true tragedy by all accounts.

By now your Twitter and Facebook feeds are rife with all kinds of messages of hope and prayer and sympathies. Loved ones are checking in on each other and celebrating the safety/well-being of the people they care about. For those who’ve lost people you have my deepest sympathies.

Some of you may be confused as to why you are here.

*ring ring*

I’m terribly sorry for this but I really have to take this call. If you will excuse me…

“Hello! Baldwin speaking…

Ah yes the group from Beirut. Their section is already ready prepared for them. Feel free to notify them. They’ll know where to go”

Ah yes where was I? For the first time in a long while your collective piece of mind has been troubled by the violence and tragedy commonplace in this your new reality. I wouldn’t wish this kind of emotional trauma on my worst enemy and I assure you we are going to do everything we can to ease your transition into the real world

But you may be asking yourself, what is this real world of which I speak? Well, as it turns out, for as long as you can remember, and for whatever reason, perhaps it’s economic privilege, national identity, religion, or the color of your skin, you’ve been sheltered in an alternate reality. Your forefathers found the problems of our extant reality to be too much for their fragile psyches to bear. They saw fit to hide you all in a Lacuna, a space outside of time and context so as to keep you safe. *ring ring* oh my I’m deeply embarrassed about this…

“Hello, this is Assistant Director Baldwin…. Yale and University of Missouri? Ah yes… well route Yale here, Missouri’s already had experience with this before. Send them to the Ferguson Ward”

My apologies. You may be wondering how I fit into all of this. I am the administrator of the space between the Lacuna and the real world. I spend most of my time shepherding folk who are affected by these types of cataclysmic events and help orient themselves into their new reality. Exciting right? That being said, for many, this transition can be very difficult. I can say with confidence after many years of guiding people out of the Lacuna that very few of you are going to be able to make the cut. Humans historically have clung to the comfort and safety of certainty and the familiar, and by definition this new reality exists in direct opposition to this concept.

As it stands this cataclysm hasn’t destroyed the Lacuna; just damaged it. The damage has resulted in an aperture being created. This apertures is effectively a hole torn between our world and yours. There is only a finite amount of time that this aperture can remain open. This typically lasts a few days to a few weeks depending on how big the damage is and how much outrage the event generates. Be warned that once the Lacuna’s aperture closes it will be that much harder for you to choose to leave should it ever open again.

You always have the option to return to the Lacuna from this location but once you’ve crossed the threshold into the real world there is no going back. I cannot promise you all as comfortable a time as that provided in the Lacuna. I’ve dwelt there myself for a brief time and I can directly speak to the benefits and luxuries it can afford. I won’t blame you should you choose to go back. *ring ring ring*

I should really turn this off, but my job makes it so that I have to be on call at all times. This will only take a second.

“Assistant Director Baldwin here….civil unrest in Burma? Why are you even calling me about this? You should already know how to handle these cases by now. Americans were involved? Christ… well, send the Americans here. I’ve got another orientation starting up in a few hours”

Where were we? Oh yes.

I have here a few guidelines and principles to help you through this transition.

1. Emotional Trauma– The emotions you are feeling are real and true. Feel free to honor your emotions as you see fit. However, be sure that you choose to channel those emotions into healthy and progressive ways. You are all dealing with trauma right now and your brains are in crisis mode. There will be a push to quickly find meaning in all of this. I hesitate you to do such until such a time passes that you are able to process your reality effectively.
2. The New Minority- This is going to be the topic that may push most of you retreat back into the Lacuna, but I will need you to hear me out on this one. You are about to enter a world inhabited predominantly by people’s who’s experience differ vastly from your own. Do not be startled when you find yourself no longer in the comfort of a hegemonic system that uplifts the values most dear to you. This is not to say there isn’t a space for you here. Quite the contrary, we welcome you with open arms, just keep in mind that you won’t be afforded the same benefits afforded to you in the Lacuna.
3. Ask For Help: The peoples within are very practiced at dealing with this kind of trauma. While we are here to help we have lives of our own to lead and are going to be incapable of protecting your feelings at all times. We can teach you to channel your emotions in the way we’ve learned how, but they remain your sole burdens to bear and deal with as you see fit
4. Playing The Blame Game– The Lacuna is a translucent reality bubble. While inside the bubble you may have caught shadowy glimpses of the world as it exists outside of the Lacuna. Many of your initial impressions of this new reality will be based on the glimpses of chaos and violence you witnessed from the safety of the Lacuna. There will be many folk in the real world that will share superficial similarities to those images you’ve seen of what your perceived to be the outside of the Lacuna. Be warned that these images aren’t real. They are only your fuzzy and approximate projections of these people. I’m not going to lie to you, in this instance, some people from this world are responsible for tearing open the hole into the Lacuna. This is not always the case. Sometimes these tears can come from within and more often than not, they are just random acts of God. The Lacuna is a fragile fragile thing weathered by many years of catastrophe and cataclysm and it is increasingly becoming vulnerable to these tears. The ones directly responsible for this event already being dealt with and while there may be superficial similarities between these saboteurs and many of the people of this word you MUST understand the tear in Lacuna was not condoned of endorsed by citizens of this world. While we are undoubtedly more acclimatized to violence and catastrophe than you are now, we do not revel in it. This is a terrible thing that’s happened but we urge you to not commence with the pointing of fingers. This will serve no other purpose than to antagonize those best equipped to help you through the struggles ahead.