Whiplash
And incomprehension
This morning I stopped reading my Siddha Yoga Correspondence Course lesson on this sentence:
“When the heart opens, we know what dwells within the heart of everyone.”
I stopped because my heart flooded. Love. Love. Love. Relief.
Then I picked up The Black Book, a historical scrapbook of Black history predating the slave trade and up through the 1940s, first compiled in 1974 by Toni Morrison and Middleton A. Harris. I’m reading a little bit every day and today, this is what I landed on:
I gasped. Didn’t know what to do with myself. Flopped backward. How do I deal with this? Is there something to write about it? I’ve got to do something!
There is nothing to be done.
I think that is what none of us want to hear about our feelings of pain and whiplash. I think the only thing to do is feel it . . . and understand that these feelings are long-overdue. If we are white, they are the inevitable product of being educated in intentionally altered history: whitewashed stories where this pain was not discussed or even acknowledged.
And now it’s out. And hence, the backlash of those who futilely want it re-erased.
The Good Part
Trump is now in a corner facing a number of furious groups: (1) unhappy MAGA supporters who are disillusioned at his broken promises and the cost of living; (2) new opponents as they begin to feel their strength as the Waking Giant—the vast middle of the American public who aren’t that interested in politics but will soon be unable to afford healthcare and food; (3) legal professionals who actually understand law who are ruling against his half-baked flunkies who bring meritless cases wasting everybody’s time and all of our money; (4) eventually, when in his irrepressible bad instincts and his unqualified pawns lead him to declare a meritless war, he will face generals who have spent their adult lives becoming expert at what they do, and they will say “No!”; and of course, (5) all the rest of us who have been screaming all along.
We all are becoming experts in whiplash. And perhaps the more we experience it, the quicker our recovery and mobilization time will get.
It’s happening for me. Within 10 minutes of feeling like I’d been in an emotional car crash, I’m ready to do my aerobics workout—an excellent channeling of intense feelings.
Betsy Robinson is a longtime student of the Siddha Yoga Correspondence Course, a daily meditator, graduate of a four-year healing school, studying trauma healing, and former managing editor of Spirituality & Health magazine. She is an editor, fiction writer, journalist, and playwright. She has written about books for Publishers Weekly, Lithub, Oh Reader, and many other publications. Her novels Cats on a Pole and The Spectators were published by Kano Press in 2024, and earlier novels won prizes from Mid-List Press and Black Lawrence Press. She writes funny stories about flawed people and examines our herd culture. www.BetsyRobinson-writer.com.