Writing helps ease the pain
By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist
When you log on to America Online, the welcome page features heartbreaking depictions of the attack on America drawn in crayon and colored ink by children across the country. It's a changing gallery, but so many of the pictures are the same — the twin towers of the World Trade Center with big red hearts coming out of the windows and tears raining down the sides, or small hands joining together in a prayer for peace. The pictures are both sad and hopeful, created by children trying to make sense of a senseless act. Art therapy at its best.
Inside my e-mail in-boxes, both at home and at work, are dozens of essays written in the past seven days by adults trying to make sense of a senseless act. Writing therapy, it seems.
The essays are varied, from people who know how to spin a golden phrase with $10 words, to others who rarely write more than a grocery list but who wrestled words onto the page to ease some of the pressure on their wounded souls. The letters are from people who witnessed the tragedy first-hand, people who knew one of the victims, people who have no ties to New York or D.C. but who feel a deep connection to what happened a week ago today. They're from people who had a need to put shape and name to their feelings, and who had a very human need to share those feelings with others.
Some of the e-mails are essays written by columnists or clergy members or international leaders, copied and sent out wide to everyone on the mailing list. It's as if many people recognized their own pain in someone else's words and were grateful for a way to speak their minds, if only by proxy.
One of the most popular sent to me was written by author Gary Zukav:
"Many will be asking your opinion of these events. Each question is an opportunity for you to contribute to the love that is in the world or to the fear that is in the world. This is the same opportunity that presents itself to you at each moment. If you hate those who hate, you become like them. You add to the violence and the destructive energy that now fills our world."
As one who loves words and picks up a pen at the slightest twinge of any emotion, it is striking for me to witness so many people turning to words for solace in this terrible time. Even more striking is that so much of what's being written and copied and sent around are, like the quote from Zukav, variations on the theme of peace. Of course, there's anger and sorrow and thoughts of vengeance, but the words flowing from people's hearts around the country are a call for an end to violence and a prayer for life without hatred and fear. You might think mere words can't do much, but there are many who believe words have the power to change the world and the ability to heal.
Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com
