loving art, science and creative kids
10/28/2023 5:44:25 PM
SHOCKED !
Trauma No More
Trauma occurs unexpectedly, violating your moral fiber. It is not the same as long-term suffering, which occurs slowly over time. The shock from a traumatic experience affects both body and mind with unexpected consequences. For many people, it has a spiritual overlay since they can't believe their God would let what they are going through happen. Though people react in different ways during horrific experiences, freezing in place is most common. Soldiers are trained in mock battles in hopes that their muscles will automatically respond when faced with real action.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be triggered by war, violence, or other natural and human-made disasters. After becoming traumatized, many victims push the horror to the back of their minds, where it lays dormant for years. It may be a sound, smell, or image that causes a flashback that immobilizes them. That happened to an Afghanistan vet I counseled. He became highly agitated ten years after his discharge when visiting a Middle Eastern-style tea room at a music festival. He was one of the fortunate men who sought help so he was able to function. Ignoring PTSD can cause sleeplessness and stress that affects bodily functions, especially the heart. Other symptoms are uncontrolled anger, lack of energy, apathy, and suicidal thoughts. It is hard to live with a person in the throes of PTSD.
When the news shows bombs exploding on innocent people or shoppers being gunned down by a deranged killer, I can't help but wonder what the event is doing to the psyche of those who are in the situation as well as those of us who vicariously watch. Seeing innocent people dying violent deaths that could have been avoided creates scars in all of us.
Several immigrant male acquaintances described what it was like to be a target of violence due to political rivalries. One man remembers how his uncle was shot by a political zealot while walking home; the other described leaving home at thirteen with an uncle when a rival tribe couldn't find his father, so were coming after him. Thirty years later and a continent away, he still keeps his blinds closed for fear that he'll be found. While in their twenties and thirties, these two men focused on finding a safe place to live and a way to earn a living. They pushed the past horror from their minds. Life in the United States was Nirvana compared to the terror in their homeland. But now, they, as are all Americans, are shocked by what is occurring in the United States. Their peace of mind is again shattered as past injustices tumble forward.
I shudder to see the Middle Eastern war escalate in the same way the Vietnam War sixty years ago. How many years will it take to get over so much death and destruction? Will those under fire ever feel safe again? This week, I listened while an Israeli woman talked through tears as she described how members of her family fled to Israel after the Holocaust. Though she resides in the United States, she always thought of Israel as a safe haven, a place Jews could escape to if antisemitism got out of hand. Her belief was shattered when Hamas invaded Israel. With synagogues targeted in the U.S. and Israel out of bounds, she lives in fear.
I get goosebumps thinking about the Maine residents who sequestered before they found the shooter. According to Forbes, since January, the U.S. has had 566 mass shootings. Our country is flooded with grieving, fearful, and angry people experiencing preventable violence that occurs in schools, churches, parks, supermarkets, and entertainment venues. I worry about my granddaughter's peace of mind after running for cover during a shooting at a Las Vegas Las Vegas concert. Will Fourth of July fireworks be a reminder of that horrific day? Will she feel safe at a show or in a crowd?
Medical ads advise trauma victims to seek help. That's not easy to do when millions need assistance, not tens or hundreds. Where will these trained professionals come from, and who will pay for their time? Unfortunately, most people will suffer from PTSD throughout their lives. And for those who receive the help they need, it isn't as though a magic wand waved over them will make them better. It can take years to forgive and dull the impact of living through a traumatic experience.
I become most sad when I think of children being thought to hate people who are not like themselves. Banning books and discussions about historical events feeds into paranoia, making them feel less secure. Hate and misunderstandings traumatize kids and make them act aggressively against children who could be their friends. There are enough movies about Armageddon or books like Lord of the Flies to imagine the worst.
Mothers, fathers, grandparents, teachers, uncles, aunts, and religious leaders, speak up! Let's combat hate and discourage rivalries that create fear, dull the mind, and kill. We don't need more victims of trauma. Set an example by practicing compassion and love.
Remember Martin Neimoller (1892-1984), a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany. When young, he sympathized with many Nazi ideas, but after Adolf Hitler came to power, he became an outspoken critic. Starting in 1937, he spent eight years in prisons and concentration camps. Neimoller is known for the following quote taken from the Holocaust Encyclopedia.
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.
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ABC News documented 54 court cases where the perpetrators said President Donald Trump inspired their violence. There were no incidences made in the name of President Barack Obama or President George W. Bush. The nation is afraid of the man and his followers who make false claims and bully their opponents into submission. A few weeks ago, Donald Trump suggested that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milly, deserves to die. That is one of many violent threats against federal law enforcement, judges, poll workers, and past "friends" doing their jobs. He posted on Truth Social, "If you go after me, I'm coming for you." The mental health impact of the Trump presidency is over, but the trauma lingers on, with the fear that it could happen again.
Reference: Levits, E. (2023) Trump Wants His enemies to fear for their lives. Intelligencer. Retrieved from https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/09/trump-milley-death-fbi-threats.html
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Please share your perspective below.
10/21/2023 5:22:27 PM
MIRNA AND HANAN - My African/American grandchildren are easy to love.
Love, Hate, Indifference
Is finding love tough? Has anyone said that you were difficult to love? What does it mean when a leader says to go in peace and practice love? How is that done in a world where hate groups spout conspiracy theories? These questions are on my mind as I see homeless people struggling to stay alive and watch newscasts of countries bombing their next-door neighbors. If a person can't love, be loved, or practice love, how can there be peace in the world? Issues around love and hate are complex, and with the war in Israel and Gaza escalating, I have a need to unpack them in my mind.
The definition of love is difficult to pinpoint. According to the Berkeley Well-Being Institute, it is a feeling, an action, a state of being, and a motivation that artists, scientists, and philosophers have tried to define throughout the ages. Despite the confusion about what it is, most people believe that a person in love is invested in the well-being of the object of their affection for that individual's sake alone. This means that they want the person to be happy and healthy. Practicing love and going in peace is doing everything you can to see it happen. Love between nations is doing everything in a government's power to help another country thrive. The United States overcame its anger and put Japan on a growth path at the end of WWII. In one sense, we acted as parents with the goal of raising successful, happy children. The occupation was a great success, resulting in economic stability and a close relationship between our two countries.
A parent with a helpless newborn gives of his or herself selflessly, ensuring that the infant survives. Though not a two-way love relationship at first, with nurturing over the years, it can turn into one. It is not easy to sacrifice your freedom to raise a child any more than it is to care for a bedridden relative later in life. Yet, those who make sure the infant or elder is fed, their dog is walked, they go to the doctor, and their prescriptions are picked up are practicing love.
And though the person may complain about the burden of caring for children or a sick parent, they miss having them close by when the child leaves home or the parent dies.
Hate, a powerful emotion as strong as love, is defined as intense hostility, extreme dislike, and loathing. Stemming from fear, insecurity, and mistrust, it makes hateful people turn toward individuals and groups with whom they identify, often to join forces for revenge. Hate, like love, can feed on itself and intensify the emotion. Hatred can be aimed at a person, a group, or a nation. When it leads to violence and suffering, it can last for generations.
Strange as it may be, love and hate have a shared opposite emotion--indifference. People falling out of love lose interest in the well-being of the person they once cared for. Without fear or anger, they become less interested in revenge. Love and hate, like two balloons when popped, will lie deflated, be empty of feeling, lack energy, and die.
The Middle East conflict goes back thousands of years. Since the fires of hate have been continuously stoked, extinguishing them won't result in a love relationship. Indifference might be the first step to healing. But peace can be possible if people ignore their differences and, as my father always said," live and let live." The fighting factions might live peacefully if they become indifferent to each other's beliefs and way of life. Continuing as they are, the war between Israel and Hamas will escalate, increasing the pain and suffering of thousands of innocent people.
I do not believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, yet I do think nations have the right to defend themselves with the goal of de-escalating emotions, not the annihilation of their adversary. In the Israeli/Gaza war, indifference and tolerance may lower emotions and allow both nations to thrive.
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Reference…
Huntington, C. (2023) What is Love? Definition, Signs & Types. Retrieved from https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/what-is-love.html
Abrams, A. (2017) The Psychology of Hate. Psychology Today. retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/nurturing-self-compassion/201703/the-psychology-hate
10/14/2023 6:22:56 PM
FRACTURED AMERICA
War Feels Unreal
This is one of those weeks when the news feels unreal. Watching Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, and Russia slaughter citizens in a power play over land and politics is despicable, but it is so far away. Unless you have family there, the scenes are like watching the movie All Quiet on the Western Front. Such films are all too familiar, desensitizing us to brutality. The American Academy of Family Physicians reports that 91 percent of movies on television contain violence, including extreme violence. The public appears to crave seeing them.
Unfortunately, what we’re witnessing on news channels is occurring in real-time and is not fun or exciting. Despite what is happening abroad to thousands of innocent people, life in the U.S. continues with relative calm. I spoke to an intelligent woman who didn’t know about Israel’s invasion. She doesn’t follow the news, saying it is too depressing. Life continues without too much concern for the suffering of others. I worry about my granddaughter turning in her seventh-grade assignments and a homeless man's housing situation when he leaves the hospital. I did the laundry and made a savory stew, sending odors through the house that reminded me of my childhood.
In early summer, my sleep was disturbed by Fl6 planes going through maneuvers in preparation for deployment to Ukraine. This week, military helicopters practice overhead in preparation for deployment to Israel. Though not as obnoxious as the jet planes, they disturb the calm I try to maintain at home by the edge of the woods.
Despite the carnage displayed on television, I am Pollyanish enough to hope peace is possible and that the combatants will come to their senses and compromise. Otherwise, I don’t see how the Earth's eight billion inhabitants will continue to get along. Staking out of a rigid position begets distrust, hate, and violence. Sometimes, I wonder if Mother Nature isn't getting impatient in her wait for humans to find a way forward. Perhaps war, pandemics, and homelessness are her ways of reducing the population and returning it to the earth's carrying capacity. Too many people are fighting, polluting, and emitting greenhouse gasses for us to continue without making changes.
The first week of the invasion killed 1,300 Israelis, took 150 plus hostages, and wounded over 3,400 people. Palestinian officials say there are 2,215 dead and 8,714 wounded. The attempt by Israel to rid Gaza of Hamas started by cutting off water, food, power, and medical supplies, creating a humanitarian crisis. Though we aren’t hearing as much about Ukraine, their casualties continue to mount, with 120,000 dead and 180,0000 injured during the past 20 months. Russia also suffers, with 70,000 dead and another 120,000 wounded.
Towns are being destroyed, and children are terrorized while the world's nations decide what side to take in a conflict that started in 1948. During WWII, my college history teacher served on a Roosevelt-appointed committee to determine if Israel should be taken from Palestine to establish a Jewish homeland. The committee concluded not to do it—that fighting would plague the region forever. President Roosevelt, an anti-semite, ignored the committee's recommendation. He didn't want millions of Jewish refugees from concentration camps settling in the U.S. Does this approach to refugees sound familiar? As a result of that decision, the fight continues, with thousands of people in Gaza becoming homeless.
Social media and news outlets issue false reports and spin the news to get people to take sides. It is the way a gullible nation reacts to misinformation. The twenty-seven election lies listed in Trump's Georgia Indictment, though well analyzed many times and disproved, haven’t stopped much of the public from buying into his lies. We are warned that many false reports have been posted about the Israeli-Hamas fight. We must be careful about what we read and pass on to others if the information hasn’t been fact-checked. I don't like strong-armed would-be dictators like Netanyahu and Trump, nor do I like Republicans and Democrats pitting people against one another.
While citizens wait for democracy to work on their behalf, the press gives us distracting information. News articles posted this week include “6Captivating Facts about Jackie Kennedy." Who cares? The food page has photos of apples dipped in chocolate and nuts that look scrumptious. Taylor Swift donated funds to food banks on her Eras Tour, and fans followed her lead. A 104-year-old Chicago woman skydived from a plane. "Age" is just a number," Dorothy Hoffner said after landing. The Musical!, a play about the printing press inventor, opened on Broadway. NASA unveiled a collection of asteroid rocks from the Osiris-Rex seven-year journey to the asteroid Bennu. The samples included waterlogged clay materials, indicating that Earth may have become a water planet when similar asteroids crashed into it four billion years ago, filling our oceans. Nasa says the successful mission collected a treasure trove of scientific samples to analyze.
These articles may be comforting, but they take us away from a critical debate that needs to happen if worldwide peace is to prevail. In theory, sovereignty among minorities should equalize the playing field, but in practice, it never has. Maintaining stability requires relinquishing a degree of autonomy for the betterment of the whole while respecting social customs and religious beliefs. When thirteen colonial states joined to become a sovereign nation, they gave up rights to the federal government. In 1993, European countries handed over powers to a supranational authority in Brussels, charged with balancing national and collective interests. Though there are problems, the experiment is working with EU countries obtaining economic, political, and security benefits.
In 1960, 1,9 million Jews and 239 thousand non-Jews occupied Israel. Gaza had 266 thousand residents. This September's census shows 7,145 million Jewish citizens and 2.07 million non-Jews in Israel. Gaza’s population is 2.4 million, half under 19 years of age. These numbers translate to 434 people per square kilometer in Israel and 500 people per square kilometer in Gaza. They are among the most densely populated countries on earth. It isn't surprising that both Israel and Gaza want more land.
Though just as violent as many of Hollywood’s movies, the fighting in Israel doesn’t have a plot we know will end well. Real problems need to be debated and acted on, perhaps under the auspices of a more powerful United Nations. Once again, I fear that wars, pandemics, and homelessness will be nature's way of dealing with the earth’s problems if we’re unwilling to compromise and rule with our brains, not emotions.
Your comments below during this critical time are most welcom.
References:
Chang, K. (2023) NASA Unveils First Glimpse of ‘Scientific Treasure’Collected from Asteroid Samples. New York Times. retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/11/science/nasa-asteroid-osiris-rex-bennu.html#:~:text=rex-bennu.html-
Website. Good News. Today. Retrieved from https://www.today.com/news/good-news
Dale, D. (2023) 27 Donald Trump election lies listed in his Georgia indictment. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/politics/fact-check-trump-georgia-indictment-lies/index.html
Cordesman, A. ( 2023) Latest Analysis: Israel-Hamas War. Center for Strategic and International Studies. Retrieved from website, https://www.csis.org/
Vital Statistics: Latest Population Statistics for Israel: Jewish Virtual Library.. retrieved from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/latest-population-statistics-for-israel
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10/7/2023 5:45:56 PM
One of the best ways I know to stay sane is to get out of town for an overnight vacation. I'm more relaxed when I return than when I take an extensive trip requiring weeks of preparation and delving into a catch-up list upon returning home. I am always surprised when what I think will be a familiar excursion turns into something extraordinary. Ray and I spent Thursday night hot tubbing at a Spa in the Columbia Gorge. During that day and the next, we visited a pioneer ranch and hiked along the basalt columns lining the river. The views are spectacular.
No matter how often we visit the Central Gorge area, we discover something new. We ventured into a place we had passed at least a hundred times over the past twenty years. The Horsethief Lake section of the Columbia Hills Historical State Park is a National Historic Site protecting indigenous petroglyphs thousands of years old. Following is the story of “Tsagaglalal”, She Who Watches, as told to the Park Department by Lillian Pitt, a Pacific Northwest Native American Artist whose work is influenced by ancient cliff art. See image to the right.
There was this village on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge. And this was long ago when people were not yet real people, and that is when we could talk to the animals.
And so Coyote—the Trickster— came down the river to the village and asked the people if they were living well. And they said “Yes, we are, but you need to talk to our chief, Tsagaglal. She lives up in the hill.”
So Coyote pranced ups the hill and asked Tsagaglal if she was a good chief or one of those evildoers. She said, "No, my people live well. We have lots of salmon, venison, berries, roots, good houses. Why do you ask?" And Coyote said, "Changes are going to happen. How will you watch over your people?" And so she didn't know.
And it was at that time that Coyote changed her into a rock to watch her people forever.
Below are a few photos I took this week.
Indigenous people lived in and around the Columbia Basin for at least 10,000 years. The earliest inhabitants of the Columbia Basins were primarily nomadic hunters relying on big game. Two thousand years later, salmon became central to their diet, culture, society, and religion. They hunted and foraged from winter villages and established seasonal camps for fishing and gathering. Anthropologists have identified thirty-two separate groups from the headwaters to the Pacific speaking six major languages.
Until recent times, tribes did not bury their dead. Instead, they wrapped them in robes, tule mats, or furs, put them in canoes or burial vaults with prized possessions, and placed them in the woods, on rocky points, or on vacant islands like the Island of the Dead not far from Horsethief Butte. A cliff near She Who Watches was used as a burial site for infants in papooses. These ancient sites were looted and destroyed when white people took over the area. Today’s Native Americans, either cremate or bury their dead in shallow graves, mounded and topped with facsimiles of artifacts meaningful to the person’s life.
Native peoples believe that souls and spirits are inextricably tied to the natural world and its inhabitants, with salmon among the most important for bringing prosperity and life to the rivers and streams. Below is a picture from the Matheny Collection of the Celilo Falls before it was flooded behind the Dalles Dam. I took the photo to the right along the Deschutes River.
Estimates vary, with reports that say 9,140 to 14,890 people lived along the banks of Columbia when Lewis and Clark passed the Celilo/ Horsethief Butte area in 1805 on their way to the Pacific. They lived in villages in multi-family houses made of planks and used ones constructed of mats and poles when traveling and hunting. Being surrounded by an abundance of wildlife, fish, roots, and berries and a good trading location on the Columbia made them very wealthy.
We need to respect the rights and beliefs of the people who occupied North America before smallpox decimated their tribes and white settlers looted, killed, and pushed them off rich tribal lands. We can no longer treat them as second-class citizens and ignore their contributions and what Americans did to them in the past.
Your comments are always welcome below. If you have questions, contact me at [email protected]
Resources:
website. Columbia River Inner-Tribal Fish Commission. retrieved from https://critfc.org/member-tribes-overview/#:~:text=Indian
website. Northwest Power and Conservation Council: Indian Tribes. retrieved form. https://nwcouncil.org/reports/columbia-river-history/indiantribes#:~:text=A%20total%20of%2032%20separate,basin%20dating%20back%2010%2C000%20years
Estimate of Western Indians, Lewis and Clark Journals. retrieved from https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/estimate-of-western-indians/
Michael,S. (2019) Island of the Dead .Pacific Northwest Adventures. retrkieved from https://pacificnorthwestadventures.weebly.com/blog/island-of-the-dead
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