Where were you on Sunday night? Where did you "go" after The Slap - if you were watching?

I wrote this article for Psychology Today on Sunday night - but because they view the words 'trauma' and 'dissociation' as clinical, DSM terms, they declined to publish. No worries, I'm grateful to be publishing at East Wind. Trauma has passed into the common parlance - and I'll have a lot more to say about this topic in future posts.

MOSF 17.4: Will, Jada, Chris and Trauma: Oscars So Dissociated  (March 29, 2022)
"Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at Oscars 2022 in “the slap heard ’round the world,” which became a moment of collective shock and trauma, with discourse still spewing. I saw it as a moment of collective dissociation."

I also took my first pandemic flights - a new opera at the Kennedy Center featuring a libretto by former SF artist and YBCA artistic director Marc Bamuthi Joseph motivated me to use my soon-to-expire pandemic airline credits. It was BRILLIANT, featuring a Black church family's drama on the eve of the Obergefell decision, as the son of the family comes out for the first time to his father. Bamu's poetic words brought tears to my eyes. Also featured in the four mini-operas was a piece by David Henry Hwang about Maya Lin - including a Vietnamese refugee, a veteran and Robert MacNamara, all convening as Lin's Vietnam Memorial design is selected and put into place. I was sitting in the front row - and the lead diva, Karen Vuong, belted out Hwang's words with panache. I was a little like, "say it don't spray it Maya Lin!!" lol, but that's what live theater is like! I hope WRITTEN IN STONE makes a tour. Hwang and Bamu's pieces actually deserve full length treatments, I think.

On Weds. March 16, I was lucky to be in NYC to attend the Break the Silence rally at Times Square, on the anniversary of the 2021 Atlanta Spa Massacre. I was moved by novelist Min Jin Lee's words, and posted them to East Wind.

Min Jin Lee’s remarks at the Break the Silence Rally, March 16, 2022
(March 19, 2022) "Min Jin Lee’s remarks at the anti-Asian hate rally in NYC, March 16, 2022. “I’m a novelist and it is my job to have empathy for everyone. And I imagine that things must be pretty awful for a person to carry a hammer, to shout racial slurs, sleep on the streets, be off their medication, and wish to take another person’s life. My assailant is likely a person without much reason, and I’m sure he’s desperate. And yet, when I think of my brothers and sisters almost imprisoning themselves in their homes, modifying their own faces in the hopes of not getting hurt, I get angry. Why are we tying ourselves in knots trying to solve a problem that we did not create?"

And I watched two movies which I loved - 

MOSF 17.3: Pixar’s “Turning Red”: Puberty, Shame, Racism and Belonging
(March 15, 2022) Pixar’s Turning Red is only the second Pixar film directed by a woman – Domee Shi. It is also centered on an Asian American girl going through the turbulent emotions of puberty. Not surprisingly, it triggered a racist, sexist and clueless response. But it’s a fantastic film coming at an important time! Here’s my review.

and MICHELLE YEOH!!!! in The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once!

“Everything Everywhere”: Multiverses, Metaverses and You | Psychology Today , March 29, 2022
"The multiverse we inhabit in our own minds is all about choice, and I generally choose depth, relationship, and presence over spectacle."

This is probably my most viral tweet ever, summarizing the "Twitter discourse" which perfectly encapsulated the "decontextualization" that trauma expert Resma Menakem talks about. See article. Humor is one of our strongest coping mechanisms.

Thanks, and let's keep going! Change happens at the pace of relationship - so it's best to prepare for the long haul.

Warmly,

Ravi