Trauma, Compassion & the Death of Bin Laden

cold heat

Trauma, Compassion & the Death of Bin Laden

Since I learned that the U.S. had killed Osama Bin Laden, I’ve been feeling relieved and hopeful. But each time I start to feel upbeat, a claw grips my heart, saying “not so fast, how can you feel good about a murder”? So I’ve continued shifting back and forth between relief and hope, and shame and guilt. When I saw all of the people outside in NYC and Washington, I felt strange. I had a yearning to be there, to be connected to and bathed in all the relief and joy. I would then frown at myself and think of it as unseemly to “celebrate” a dramatic murder. Mulling my reaction, and the reactions of family, friends and those throughout the social media, I now see the death of  Bin Laden and the associated reactions as another step towards healing the trauma of 9/11.

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Self-Creation Nation! Becoming in the Social Media Age

strolling through a dream

Self-Creation Nation! Becoming in the Social Media Age

 

In recent years through my work with teens and young adults, I’ve observed that a different maturation process is emerging. Traditionally, the route to becoming a responsible adult was thought to be a linear, developmental process where accomplishing one step seemed to lead to the next one and so on. Education usually progressed in a straight line from kindergarten through high school, and then to college and possibly even graduate school. One’s career trajectory seemed to work the same way – we started at the bottom, moved up through a hierarchy, and hoped to come out “on top”.

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