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Whoosh, Sway And Your Life Is Changed So the other night I went from horny to crying in 12 seconds or less. I'm used to going from horny to angry or crabby so quickly (you know those blue-ovary moments well, right kittens?). Well this was Wednesday evening, and arousal fell away as quickly as I-35W -- followed by shock, tears and fears.
I don't want to sound like my watching from home, my television viewing was any where near as horrific as those who were there, but let me tell you something, I was freaked out.
One cannot compare disasters, catastrophes -- not in the sense of loss. And I'm not trying to say who had it worse or anything like that. But there are things here with this bridge collapse which strike me as familiar in a terrible way. Katrina victims at least knew a storm was coming; folks in California know they live in earthquake land; but folks who are just driving about don't expect the road to literally just disappear from beneath their wheels. There's no warning, no idea of such impending catastrophe.
There you are, living your life, doing some mundane thing, maybe even bitching about it, and suddenly it's changed. Just a whoosh, a sway or a whoosh and a sway, and everything has changed. No one expected such a thing to happen.
And then it reminded me: This is what domestic violence is like.
There you are, living your life, doing some mundane thing, maybe even bitching about it, and then whoosh, sway, it's changed.
While 9-11 was shocking, the scope was so large and the locations unfamiliar that the devastation wasn't felt the same. When the towers fell it went from 'all' to 'nothing', but I know roads and bridges and I am relatively familiar with Minneapolis, so the bridge collapse left wreckage I could recognize.
The aftermath left huge slabs of cement, dots to connect, and soundless vehicles which spoke of the people who once lived there. This too is like domestic violence. There are the wedding rings, the home, the children, the dots to connect. The soundless empty spot on his side of the bed spoke of the person who once lived there.
All changed.
Forever.
If there are any other comparisons to be made here between the disaster on I-35W in Minneapolis and domestic violence it's that there will long be this scar. Even once a new bridge is erected the scars of those who have survived will continue to exist, even if unseen.
None of the survivors, will ever take for granted the little things so many do just living their lives. While many who were shocked and horrified at the photos and the news will eventually go on and all but forget about this, survivors will always wonder...
Just as we survivors of domestic violence do...
Is that a whoosh? Was that a sway?
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