2003-02-24 - 9:58 p.m.
AH HA!
When Kat was little, babies were supposed to sleep on their stomachs. Kat refused. She slept on her back. �What if she spit up?� little old ladies asked (although there was no �if� about it. We didn�t call her Mount St. Kat for nothing.) �She might suffocate.� But by then Kat could turn over and she just wouldn�t stay on her stomach. And a few years later, the new discovery was announced from on high. Babies should sleep on their backs.
Reading Sunday�s �New York Times� article on repression created a moment something like the announcement of that new discovery. Repression and denial may be the way to go after all. After all those years of being told to talk it out, after all those years of being expected to wallow in my feelings when the rough times come, after all those years in which it was okay for people to demand sensitive, it turns out that some studies suggest that gritting your teeth and getting through is not such a bad strategy after all.
You can recognize me at any emergency or trauma. I�m the cold one. I�m the one figuring out what needs to be done and doing it. I�m the one who is not discussing it much�unless someone else needs to talk. I�m the one on automatic pilot�the one who gets through by putting one foot in front of the other. I�m the one who believes that a little denial is a good thing and that a bit of repression will get you through the day.
So now that I�m older and times are changing, perhaps I won�t get all those insistent friends telling me to �talk it out and I�ll feel better.� Perhaps I won�t face all those well-meaning people who want me to talk about it over and over so I can put it in proper perspective.
But I�m not holding my breath.
LAST YEAR: Catching and Being Caught
LAST FIVE ENTRIES:
Bath Salts
For This?
A League of Someone Else�s
Evita
Everything I Need to Know About Homeland Security I Learned at the Seton Camp-Out
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
