A Perfect Storm
The Year of Magical Thinking starred Vanessa Redgrave as Joan Didion, the author and playwright who endured the unfathomable deaths of a husband and a daughter in the span of one year. The unforgettable opening monologue sent a chill down my spine.
“This happened on December 30, 2003. That may seem a while ago but it won’t when it happens to you. And it will happen to you. The details will be different, but it will happen to you. That’s what I’m here to tell you.”
We as human beings and mental health professionals straddle the fence between adaptive and maladaptive denial in our day to day lives. We recognize that denial rooted in wishful and magical thinking paradoxically undergirds our equanimity while it meanwhile surreptitiously lays in wait to ambush us and turn our worlds upside down.
Recently, an old friend of mine experienced a perfect storm, a sudden and catastrophic loss. I wish to share with you the artistic fruits of my efforts to make sense of this tragedy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGN4i_YtXXk&t=1s