My parents also were part of that generation. While some people were strengthened by adversity and developed coping skills, my parents were poisoned by it. They remind me now of people who cannibalized their fellows in the name of survival at all costs, and their habits of secretiveness and screwing people continued to the end of their lives. My father died too young (1954) for the full results to show, but my mother, who died in 1992, lived a long and vicious life of secretiveness, mistrust, self-service, and lying. She took it to her grave. Before we romanticize over how people did the Nietzsche "Makes Me Stronger" song-and-dance, we need to remember as well the human ruins and the trail of destruction that pursued them and their descendants.
I also wonder whether there are some people who, for whatever reason (inherited traits, temperament, environment, family or group history, etc.) would deal with any situation with (take your pick) bitterness or optimism or energy or discouragement.
I'm also remembering reading something, years ago, about developing the quality of hardiness. I wonder if it is something one can develop, and if so how, and what one needs and whom one needs to do so. We're certainly all going to need some of it in the coming years and decades.
Again I return to community and the need for it - whatever it is: family, congregation, action group, family of choice, union.
4 comments:
Fascinating reading, if a little sad and also a little scary.
I am left without words and with much to pray about, to ponder today.
My parents also were part of that generation. While some people were strengthened by adversity and developed coping skills, my parents were poisoned by it. They remind me now of people who cannibalized their fellows in the name of survival at all costs, and their habits of secretiveness and screwing people continued to the end of their lives. My father died too young (1954) for the full results to show, but my mother, who died in 1992, lived a long and vicious life of secretiveness, mistrust, self-service, and lying. She took it to her grave. Before we romanticize over how people did the Nietzsche "Makes Me Stronger" song-and-dance, we need to remember as well the human ruins and the trail of destruction that pursued them and their descendants.
Yes.
I also wonder whether there are some people who, for whatever reason (inherited traits, temperament, environment, family or group history, etc.) would deal with any situation with (take your pick) bitterness or optimism or energy or discouragement.
I'm also remembering reading something, years ago, about developing the quality of hardiness. I wonder if it is something one can develop, and if so how, and what one needs and whom one needs to do so. We're certainly all going to need some of it in the coming years and decades.
Again I return to community and the need for it - whatever it is: family, congregation, action group, family of choice, union.
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