How do we make sense of the tragedy in Virginia? I don’t know. Like Columbine and all the shootings that have occurred, in Boston and elsewhere recently, there is no sense to it. People look for a reason, such as “gang vendetta,” “desperation,” “miserable childhood,” or “mental illness,” but nothing will satisfy. Maybe it helps a little to understand they why’s of a tragedy. Perhaps it does, simply because it allows people the chance to talk about it, and I am a believer in talking. I think that forming the words in your mind and then in your mouth, getting them out into the air, makes them and their content a tangible thing, almost, and allows you to look at it. I know that I have the voracious need to talk about everything that I think about, to write it down or to talk about it to Ned or a friend, or to myself while driving. I have to say the words and hear them in order to fully digest them.<\/p>\n
This is why I think therapy is a truly wonderful thing. Therapy really helps. Maybe not right away. But it helps you get a full understanding of your behaviors and thought processes, because you hear yourself reflected by your therapist. People judge themselves for being in therapy as being self-indulgent, ridiculous, etc. They hate the fact that they are spending money on talking to another human being. And for not even a full hour; a 50-minute hour! How insulting. How degrading.<\/p>\n
But actually, therapy is one of the most life-affirming acts a person can make. Understanding ourselves and working to become better people helps make the world a better place. Looking within at all the alleged ugliness and coming to terms with it, that is a beautiful, strengthening thing. Oh sure<\/span>, you’re thinking, if you’ve got the cash and the time<\/span>. Well, I don’t know but most people can find 50 minutes at some point during the week, or every two weeks. And as for money — well I can’t help you there, but I do know that there are sliding scales and that many things are possible if we set our minds to doing them. I don’t mean to be dismissive; I know that I am fortunate that my healthcare covers therapy. Many people’s insurance covers therapy and yet they still do not go. But why? Why are matters of the head deemed less important than, say, if you had a lung or heart problem?<\/p>\n I wonder why it was that the Virginia shooter’s family claimed that although Cho was diagnosed with autism at age 8, they did not get him help because they “couldn’t afford it.” Surely some kind of autism “therapies” would be made available through the school system, if indeed the child had a bona fide autism diagnosis. But the fact that according to CNN, the great-aunt called Cho an “idiot,” when referring to the tragedy he caused, and the fact that FOX News claims another relative said he was “glad Cho was dead,” makes me think that there was more going on in that family than lack of financial resources. It sounds to me like lack of understanding and hatred were going on, regardless of Cho’s diagnosis. <\/p>\n Of course tragedies and anomalies occur. But it seems to me that a struggling family, wrestling with finances as well as two very different cultures, an abhorrence for aberration, and a very needy child, is a recipe for disaster. Certainly not a disaster of this magnitude, but real trouble nonetheless.<\/p>\n One thing I feel pretty certain about: therapy, whether for communication purposes or for emotional work, would probably have helped this young man. The right help would have averted this disaster.<\/p>\n And another thing: it was not,<\/span> definitely not, autism that led to this horror. Autism does not make people killers. Sorry, FOX, CNN, et al. Do your homework. It is the lack of supports and proper healthcare that turn people out into the streets before they are truly ready to be there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How do we make sense of the tragedy in Virginia? I don’t know. Like Columbine and all the shootings that have occurred, in Boston and elsewhere recently, there is no sense to it. People look for a reason, such as “gang vendetta,” “desperation,” “miserable childhood,” or “mental illness,” but nothing will satisfy. Maybe it helps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSTth-fw","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}