On Patrick Stewart's video about domestic violence and trauma

Sir Patrick Stewart talks about how he grew up witnessing his father act violently towards his mother. Then, as an adult he learned that his father's violence stemmed from the PTSD his father experienced as a veteran of WWI. It seems to me that the traumas that nations experience seep into the individual lives of its citizens, its families, for generations. I think it is so important to realize that trauma is our adversary, not other human beings. This realization is one of the most difficult, but important ones to make for anyone who has been hurt by another ...and perhaps even more important for anyone who hurts others. 

The best part of the clip for me occurs when everyone is focused on applauding Sir Stewart, but he himself stays wonderfully attentive and connected to the woman who asked the question. As a clinician who works with so many people touched by trauma, I can tell you that that caring, mindful awareness of others in the present moment is the hallmark of having healed and turned trauma into growth. For anyone who hasn't attained that growth, set course for that solar system and ...Engage! 

Bryan Stevenson's TED Talk on Injustice

This talk will certainly keep my batteries going in our work for justice-involved youth.

My Favorite Quote: we are always more than the worst thing we've ever done.

What's your favorite?

David Foster Wallace's Commencement Speech

Here is a great video illustrating excerpts from DFW's commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005. I post it here because I fully agree with it. 

To entice those who won't watch it without some sense of what to expect, I'll tritely summarize (but I really think you should just watch it and read the full speech). The speech addresses the same issues Wallace was writing about in his unfinished novel, The Pale King. It starts with the notion that we all live life in the default mode of our own egocentric perspective. This, however, leads to a life of banality and meaninglessness, which we try to fill through worship of something--anything--whether spiritual, material or superficial. The only freedom from this banality comes from arresting the default egocentricity through radical awareness of the moment, which leads one to become aware of the experience of others. The best quote from the speech is: 

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

Such a loss that he left us so early. I wish I understood why the shackling weight of his own depression became no longer bearable.

The full commencement speech has also been made into a brief book called This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life. The entire speech is also available for free on the web.