On May Day in 1971, I had just been released from almost a year in a hospital in Boston, and was invited to the kite festival in Franklin Park. It was a new beginning in life, after being on the receiving end of a violent attack by a stranger.
I do not chat about this chapter, but right now, as one who has been on the receiving end of blows to the face, the gut, and knife wounds, and one who takes calls from parents and young people in crisis, some of which are dealing with the aftermath of such things…..it is time that we all grow sensitivity muscles around what we see in the media.
When a blow to the face happens, one does not get up, and go about one’s business, and the neck, the ears, the eyes, the entire head region is in pain, ringing, going black and sometimes affected for a long time.
With a blow to the gut, one’s innards can be permanently rearranged and one does not get up and jump around a room delivering punches.
Knife wounds are a different story and even a small cut, creates trauma in the body and emotions.
We are growing a culture of no feeling….no connection to brutality….no true understanding of what we are taking in cellularly on a regular basis through our eyes, in the media.
We need to wake up.
To me? May Day is about kites dancing in the wind and freedom, and of course flowers.
On my walk this afternoon I spied children romping with their families and playing with dogs.
Let’s be more conscious of them; their bodies, their emotional strength, their spiritual freedom.