tonight i decided to address Hurricaine Katrina in my Social work with children and adolescents class. I want to help these undergraduate student learn the impact of trauma on people under 18...I decided to teach them about post traumatic stress syndrome and secondary trauma... i decided to teach them HOW to talk to kids about the hurricaine and how to answer kids questions..
One of my brighter student asked me, where the Social Workers were in Houston and where are the mental health professionals. and can we expect suicides, alcoholism and domestic violence rise among first responders again.. We ended up talking about Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. YOu need to feed people's stomachs before you can feed their heads...
slowly the topic switched to 9-11... it all triggers 9-11... i reminded them that sunday was the anniversary of the world trade towers being attacked and that should not take away from Katrina's damage.. as we were in eyesight of the WTC site, we talked about those Phanthon Towers and the many meaning of the landscape of disasters and why anniversaries and rituals are important..
the students decided that they could feel what went on in New Orleans.... empathy it is called... i responded..
when i left the building, i looked down Varick street as i do each week and sure enough the Towers of Light were back as they are every year and i nodded to the Fake towers..
as i walked up my block... i ran into my neighbor Freddie in his yankee jersey and i got the score to the red sox -LA game... Sox were winning.. yankees were winning too.. and i saw in a spit of sky between two apartment building, A single tower of light..... the tower followed me home.. or maybe like the burned debris from Prudentiial life that floated in the air on that tuesday morning, the light of the tower could reach my block...
