| Once
upon a time there was a youth who dreamed dreams
of adventure and goodness. He came
from average people who worked hard and made sacrifices
for their families. They came from
people who were farmers, who were primarily hill
people, who had a strong belief in what was
fair and just and a stubborn propensity for standing
up for those beliefs. They had always made
sacrifices, whether it be for their families or
the country in which they lived.
The youth was a sensitive and perceptive son, who
loved to sit and watch the hawks soaring in
the sky, smell the fresh cut hay and listen to the
hounds running on cold nights.
One day, as was his habit, he stopped on the way
to school to sit on the roots of a large Oak tree
and watch and listen. Down the road came two men.
One reflected the light of the sun like a
knight errant. The other, who seemed to be almost
in rags had a dark, moody and sad affect.
Both strode with the air of purpose and had a sense
of adventure about them, although the dark
one was scarred and walked with a limp.
They stopped before the youth, who was immediately
awed by the bright and shining one who
began to tell him stories of great adventure, sacrifice
and honor. On and on he talked and the
youth became a part of the stories and when the
stranger left, he was full of wonderment and
could not wait to make his life like this bright
and shining stranger. There was a slight hint of
a
shadow regarding the dark and silent one but this
was quickly pushed aside by the memory of
indestructibility of the bright one.
The youth grew into a young man still dreaming of
challenges and adventure. When war came to
his country he quickly went to become a soldier,
ready to fulfill his destiny.
On the field of war he saw courage and sacrifice
but also cruelty and callousness, sometimes
present in the same individual. Remembering the
feeling of confidence and control of the bright
and shining stranger of his youth he strove to maintain
this feeling for himself. And when he was
struck down on that chaotic field, in his terror
and agony, he changed forever. Then began an
ordeal of struggling against the pain of so much
lost. The pain and suffering within the body of
the youth became a tyrant. He returned to the country
of his youth and all was changed. Even the
old Oak tree was gone. But the one of dark visage
was still there, his scars and appearance too
foreboding to even acknowledge.
The youth frantically searched and sought for the
bright one and the return of his dreams but he
searched in vain.
In pain and confusion he walked the roads of his
youth and one day he came upon the dark one
who blocked his path. He rushed forward and a violent
struggle began between them. From all
around others came to intercede and help but the
two struggled on and on until finally the youth,
fatigued by his pain, fell down.
The other stood over him and the youth recognized
something very familiar about him. The dark
one, who seemed to now reflect the light of the
sun, said, "I came to you as a youth and spoke
with you, but you only heard what you could hear.
You now have the mark of pain and suffering
of your experience and you must tell others for
they too must face what is really real. They may
not hear you but you must convince them to listen
differently."
The metaphor reflects a common theme in our culture;
the heroic archetype that represents a
value system based on what is perceived as "right"
and doing what is "right." When the "what
is
right" is violated and the body and soul is
traumatized the person reacts with fear and rage
and
the body and soul suffers a deep sense of loss of
control. The youth experiences this loss of
control, not only because of his trauma but also
because of what he thought was right now seems
like an illusion. The cement that bonded him to
his culture and its sense of order crumbles into
nothingness. He frantically tries to recapture it
as it was but eventually is confronted with the
reality that he can not. The dark one reminds him
and issues a call to him regarding his
responsibility to his humanness to share his story
because all will sooner or later face this crisis.
The personal narrative is extremely important to
the victim of posttraumatic stress disorder
(PTSD), the finding of one's voice and articulating
their story. Even if in the beginning the story
is chaotic, the validation allows for the rebuilding
of the illusions of control and that in a real
deep sense they are not illusions at all.
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