How Do We Heal From Our Collective Trauma?
Keeping it together while the country is falling apart.
It’s hard to know how to feel in the days of COVID-19 and mob violence. We see the pandemic numbers of the infected and dead every time we turn on the news. The numbers keep going up so fast that nobody has time to process it. I feel numbed out yet heartbroken for those who died, but I can’t bring myself to cry yet. I’ve been fortunate that COVID-19 hasn’t touched most of my friends and family members. The idea of something bad happening to somebody I love is always on my mind, and I live in fear of it every day
On top of that mental exhaustion, I watched coverage of the riots in the Capital last week nonstop. It’s hard not to look when the news is breaking every five minutes. I saw the video footage of a police officer being beat to death with flagpoles, another officer being crushed in a doorway, and the noose that was hung outside the building. All of it scared the life out of me, and I know I’m not alone. The idea of a Congress filled with politicians and a mob that was coming to get them horrified me. If I’m being honest, I had a feeling something like this was coming sooner than later with all the rhetoric, but it was shocking nonetheless.
It’s strange to realize that we’re a traumatized country. I have more symptoms of…
