Alison Rose’s Reviews > When We See You Again > Status Update

We humans have the ability to hold & bear a multitude of truths at the same time. A variety of realities. A diversity of gospels. I can be in pain & be able to laugh. I can grieve for my son & be proud of my daughters. I can suffer w/every inhale & feel blessed w/every exhale. & that expansive capacity, that artful woven-ness, is the utter quintessence of being human. It is the core of walking through this existence.

Before, it was the kind of desperation that felt like holding my breath until I could come up and gasp the nourishing air back into collapsed lungs. But now it will be a forever breathlessness. An eternal, ardent craving living within me. A roommate in my soul. A roommate I don't want to share myself with and I didn't choose.

If we always treat the person next to us as if they are the Messiah disguised as a regular person, we will be careful w/how we speak &what we do in their presence. If they choose not to reveal themselves in our lifetime, it will not matter b/c we will have behaved respectfully &carefully w/that regular person next to us. This is the most decent thing we can do in this complex&loud world, piled w/confusion&brokenness.

The particular abuse the hostage families sustained is different from normative trauma, as when the blow from a truck crushes& ruptures every morsel then drives away. But ambiguous trauma is when the truck makes its cruel impact, demolishing& mutilating, & also stays on top of the broken person. This renders the shattered being underneath paralyzed w/agony &torment indefinitely. Pinned& trapped. In every single way.