trauma

Yesterday in my rhetoric class, I asked students to write about the particular aspects of Katrina's aftermath that, for any reason, continue to strike them. In part, this was a lesson in understanding our own biases: why are we drawn to what we're drawn to, and how do our personal histories help us understand why we pick up on some things and not on others? And what can understanding these biases help us understand about the arguments we choose to make and those we choose to ignore? Yup, I've got the teacher voice going on here.

Anyway, I wrote along with them, and the thing that keeps coming up for me is the trauma that the victims have been through and the very long road to a "recovery" that will never be complete. I understand my reasons for being drawn to this, and because of that, I also understand that other people's trauma is not something we can ever really get (can I use the word "understand" one more time in this post, I wonder). But what pisses me off is this ubiquitous attitude that people need to just buck up and get over it.

I'm simultaneously drawn to the material and to the psychological aspects of this trauma. I know that once the media attention dwindles and the stories about people getting on with their lives start coming in, we will, as a nation, forget the psychological struggles of the people living with the traumatic memories of these days. I guess that's human nature, but it makes me sad.

My constant questions: How do people get over something like this? How do they keep going in the face of so many unanswered questions? And I constantly ask these questions because I suspect that I wouldn't be able to do it.