As some on this list suggest and perhaps rightly so it is best to sort of
"chill out" , take a break, and enter into some reflexivity. AND that I
will do. I welcome individual and personal communications and will do my
best to answer them.
Whether you all realize it or not my need to do something was so great
that a form of relief and therapy for me was making some of the postings
on this list. If I turned some off I am indeed sorry. Very few can
comprehend the flood of emotions that I felt when witnessing this event
from my Newark office. Being a Marine Officer for 20 years exposed me to
the worst of humanity. While in Vietnam the traumas associated with that
conflict become internalized and over time become locked in a cognitive
box. The key to opening that box was the events of Sept. 11. It released a
flood of emotions that were dormant since 1966. Ken Gergen had it right
when he spoke of the "saturated self" in a book he wrote with the same
name. Wrestling with those previously dormant emotions of the past has not
been easy.
I consider all of you my friends even though we obviously don't
agree. After all respectful disagreement abounds in the USA. It should
extend to everyone. I am upset that the world my 2 young grandsons are
entering is one in which hate, envy , and jealousy are still allowed to
flourish.
Mike Chumer
|