covid-19 is global trauma
21 Mar 2020in the last week, two thoughts re: covid-19 have been really sitting with me from two folks in the css advanced training alumni network.
the first is from d. farai williams: we are experiencing a collective, global trauma.
when farai said this my brain just oozed out of my ear. that is EXACTLY what’s happening. so much is happening so fast and the amount of control most of us have is so small. which segues to the next second thought… from lj amsterdam: how much trauma sticks with someone in a hard moment is directly linked to how much agency they felt in that moment.
idk if that’s like common knowledge in the trauma discourse but it totally blew my mind. it aligns with all the other things i’ve learned about trauma but opens up a space of possibility: more agency = less trauma.
the combination of these two thoughts has completely shifted how i am thinking about and experiencing this pandemic. there’s a LOT but here are just a few that farai and lj’s words have spawned in me:
- how do i/we increase the agency of people around me/us?
- (inspired by a convo of evolutionary leaders) what if giving people agency is the difference between fomenting the future we want and the next great depression?
- being ordered to go on lock down makes people feel less powerful. the lack of tests is makes people even more powerless. the narrative that wealthier/famouser people seem to be getting tested more often than other people is not making that any better.
- what might moving through these days with a trauma-informed approach add?
- what scale and type of individual and collective healing will be needed in the coming months/years?
hmmm!
words / writing / post-processing
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