Not long ago I received an SOS from a close friend - she'd been stuck in a depressed slump for several weeks and was asking all her friends to email, call or drop by. Since she'd provided a listening ear for me earlier this year, I was happy to help her.
This past winter my family and I were mired (or so it felt) in the emotional aftereffects of an incident at school that had involved our younger son. The incident, a Facebook-based rumoring campaign, was the culmination of a years' worth of harassment where he had been one of the targets. He was stuck in anger (understandable) and I was stuck in disbelief: how could people do things like that to each other?
During a visit to my friend I told her about the incident. She told me about a devastating encounter her son experienced years ago. After arriving home that night, I remembered other friends and colleagues who've gone through things that temporarily shook their faith in people - being falsely accused of child molestation, being sexually harassed at work, falling victim to identity theft, being stalked...the list goes on. All of these people lived through the experience and moved on.
I'm startled by the number of truly good people I've known who have victims of someone else's hostility. This reminds me that the sort of traumatic events that deliver a personal blow below the belt, such as character smears, don't say anything real about the intended victim. They do say something about the instigator but that's another story. I know that my family has good company, and plenty of it. It also reminds me that bad stuff happens - if someone as full of good will and integrity as my friend Jon (not his real name) can be a target of a hostile rumor campaign, it could happen to anyone.
In fact, it's amazing how common this experience is. Instead of isolating ourselves and feeling as though we're somehow different, we can link up and support each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment