Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Too much painful news: how to cope

Re how to handle all this terrible news.

You have to compartmentalize. Most people handle this by glancing at the headlines and then going about their business.

We have taken a deep plunge into learning about what is being done by the government in our name. It's painful.

To keep sane, which I know a little bit about, it is necessary to retreat from this knowledge often. Time to rest, think about children and beauty and life, build up energy for one more foray.

Passion is the driving energy, but we must be able to take a step back and consider things intellectually. This is what we do in surgery at the children's hospital in Russia where I work, where a nearly dead child has her heart cut open in front of us. Emotions? Not so helpful at that moment. Need to focus on what to do.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

it is hard to watch this evil take shape. don't suppose there is any way to stop it, though I yell my head off to anyone who will listen and many, like my politicians, who don't. The uglieness that is the Iraq debacle is simply not something that can be described. The hurt I feel for those whose lifes are made hell in my name gives me great pause but my powerlessness (sp?) just lends to my depresional side of the bipolar ladder. I am almost in a state of not caring any more, it's just so much overload of evil. I hope, if there is a Father, that he will return soon and bring about the end of evil. What a wonderful place this world would be without evil, without greed or envy, with perfect safety from the action of men. I have often said that the Earth would be heaven if it weren't for evil. And I've lived in Alaska for 25 years now so I know heaven, almost.

Susan McIntosh Lewis said...

kerryinalaska--

We are the canaries in the coal mine. It is BECAUSE we are so sensitive that we both see the evil coming our way and suffer because others don't react.

I do believe the Father who watches over us all has a higher purpose but it is sometimes too mysterious and I lose my patience.

Keep feeling and keep screaming, someone will listen sometime.

Sigh.