by Jerry Waxler
While I, and most of the world, saw the 9/11 disaster on television, Artie Van Why saw it standing on the street outside the World Trade Center where the day before he had eaten lunch, and watched people laughing in the noonday sun. The shattering of 9/11 was a national, or international trauma. For Van Why, it was much more personal, immersed as he was in the smoke, the screams, the blood, and seeing almost within reach, the sky raining people who had jumped out of their windows.
The world was smashed apart that day, and while seeing it on television filled me with horror, oddly, meeting Van Why gave me hope. By telling his story, I believe he has started to rebuild his life. After the great Yellowstone Fire in 1988 that devastated hundreds of thousands of acres, news photos the following year showed spring flowers emerging from the charcoal black landscape. In a similar vein, I see Van Why’s book, “That day in September, a personal remembrance of 9/11″ as a flower emerging from the rubble. While his book is an attempt to describe and make sense of the past, the result is an understanding that will carry him, and us into the present and the future. See my previous post on meeting Van Why.
The problem with trauma is that it shatters our story of the world. We don’t want to live in a world in which people fly planes into buildings, or stand up in front of a group of passengers and slit a stewardess’ throat so they can go to paradise. It’s too crazy, and the world breaks apart.
We need a sensible story in order to live sensibly, and when that story shatters, we feel broken. One way we can regain a sense of poise is to regain the story. I’m not saying it’s easy or a sure thing, but I believe that memoir writing is one of the important tools that can help people return from trauma.
While this is my belief about the healing properties of storytelling, I intend to gather more instances to show how this process has worked for real people. In interviews, workshops, and reading, I will look for people who have used story to heal from pain and regain their balance. Passing along the healing value of story is my contribution to the world, as we strive together towards hope.
