Coping With Global Trauma
This is the first time in my life that I’ve been a part of ‘global trauma’.
I’ve been a part of localized trauma – earthquakes, hurricanes, home invasions and deaths, but I’ve never been through something where everyone in the world has been affected at the same time. The picture that comes to mind is the world being a giant ‘Etch-A-Sketch’ that has been shaken so hard everything has been erased. The things that seemed solid are now liquid and what seemed dependable is not. I heard someone say that this is the most insecure they have felt since junior high. Not because of their behavior, but the circumstances around them.
With this ‘clearing’ of the Etch-A-Sketch’ it seems like a solid line has now been etched down the middle of it and we’ve been asked to choose a side on a lot of things: politics, vaccines, masks, mandates, and kids in person or remote schooling. You can find ‘fodder’ for your side of things, and they can find ‘fodder’ for theirs.
Do you feel the division? I don’t think it’s new, but we now have many new ways of promoting it. I am TIRED! Tired of the tension and the continual need to make a choice. I have found a tool that is helping me deal with the ‘great divide’. It’s helping me in two ways:
One, it’s helping me to be aware of when I am judging another –how subconsciously I slide into judging!
Two, it’s given me a tool to know what to do with that judgement that divides. It is called 'Practical Attunement'.
Attunement / Misattunement
Join / Judge
Investigate / Interrogate
Collaborate / Fix
I ask myself am I ‘joining’ OR judging this person I’m interacting with? …investigating with them OR interrogating them? …collaborating with them OR trying to fix them &/or the problem? What a great plumbline to have. May it help as we navigate these new times.
Joy R serves as a missionary with GlobalGrace