In 1973 Erica Jong wrote the feminist anthem, Fear Of Flying. The heroine, Isadora, though terrified of flying, boards a plane and her subsequent journey leads to a spiritual and sexual awakening that was the one of the first of its kind in print. Jong’s thesis is that the fear of flying is the fear [...]
My reflections on Miep Gies’ death as well as Wendy Soltero’s would-be 32st birthday.
Many of the things that I did in the Naughts Decade. I probably left out a bunch, but anyway.
In spite of its horrifying nature, I must thank you for this post, Ms. Sax. It is a testament to the woman-unfriendly world we live in that these disgusting crimes against humanity take place right under the authorities’ noses. It appears that women’s health and safety quite simply is not a general concern for men, [...]
America, I trusted you with my life and you stole my innocence.
America, no dollars nor credit card cents, October 28, 2000.
I can’t stand my own memories.
America, when will you end your genocides?
Go fuck yourself with your right to bear arms.
My uterus has been poisoned since your doctors put their hands in me.
It’s hard to write [...]
Another lovely and relevant post, thank you Ed & Deb!
Normal stress is compounded for me by also dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and I have to be very aware of which kind of stress may be affecting me at any given point. I find that drinking too much alcohol or eating things I’m sensitive to [...]
I am stunned beyond belief at all the support being offered Roman Polanski, convicted child raper and jail dodger, after his long overdue arrest in Zurich last week. What kind of world do we live in that just because a person is a celebrity and a holocaust survivor he is somehow seen as being exempt [...]
Here in Europe we have this amazing cream called Bepanthen that is phenomenal for healing wounds without any resulting scarring. Doesn’t matter how you got the wound, scrape, burn, but if you use Bepanthen on it you absolutely will not scar. I got to thinking that maybe forgiveness is like that cream. If you don’t [...]
Thank you, Kiri, for this provocative post and the reminder that childhood lessons are some of the most important.
I certainly know that rumbly churny tummy feeling that is a sure sign something is amiss. For me, my natural intuition was scrambled by trauma and afterwards I would get that “off” feeling all the time. Crippling [...]
Eight years ago two planes flew into New York’s World Trade Centers killing thousands. I remember my then-boyfriend waking me up to tell me what had happened. It was 8am in California and so I laughed at the news, thinking that someone had pulled a Fight Club and destroyed two empty buildings. When he reminded [...]
I am pretty sure I’ve discovered a new fairy who has been in my life for some time now. I’m calling her The Trauma Fairy, and my belief is she goes into our minds while we sleep and erases things that are just too awful to remember. One of the more dramatic times she visited [...]
Although it’s been weeks since I’ve seen it, I’m still thinking about the movie The Brave One. Jodie Foster repeats throughout the film that after the horrific trauma she went through, it was like a new person emerged in her. Someone who was capable of doing things that she never would have dreamed of doing [...]
Last weekend, Steve and I went to see the new Jodie Foster film The Brave One. I’ve been feeling so strangely about my life, Wendy’s death, dealing with violence, that I had mixed feelings about a movie where a woman’s response to trauma is to pick up a gun and begin killing baddies. The mixed [...]
Seven years ago on October 28 in Hollywood my dear friend Wendy was murdered and died in my arms. She was killed by a 19-year-old gang member who, after my testimony, is serving a life sentence in prison. I can feel it in my spirit and my bones that The Day is approaching, albeit seven [...]
The Power Of Fear: Lessons From Ft. Hood
As a sidenote to the actual point of your blog, what I find disturbing about this story is the fact that after he shot all those people, the first thing the media started doing was talking about his “ideological” and “religious” motivations, presumably because he is Muslim. The next day a white man opened fire [...]
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