Saturday, January 12, 2013

Picking Apples......Another Metaphor....

So...
We go to an orchard...
an APPLE orchard...
And this orchard is FILLED with myriad types of apples...
There are GREEN, sour ones...
and RED DELICIOUS ones....
There are PINK LADIES...
and GOLDEN ones too....
And the aroma of the apples all blended together in this particular orchard is WAFTING through
the air....
an almost heady fragrance actually...
The sky is a brilliant blue...
and the warm sun seems to reach out and hug you as you meander along...
You have only ONE basket with which to pick the apples of your desire...
That is the rule in this orchard...
Let's call the orchard EDEN....
Only one basket per "picker"....
And so...
you begin to circle EDEN....
You realize quickly that EACH tree is different.....
There are not rows and rows of mundane same-ness...
Oh, no...
NOT in EDEN....
And it dawns on you in this moment that you really know NOTHING about APPLES !!
So...
How can you possibly choose ???
Your stomach rumbles as you have not eaten yet, in anticipation of the ORCHARD VISIT.....
(even though your DOCTOR has advised you to
ALWAYS eat breakfast before going APPLE PICKING)....
Suddenly, you feel overwhelmed by the daunting task of choosing apples to fill just ONE basket...
Somehow the lovely, warm sunlight has slipped away and left a vague fog in its wake....
You realize, to your horror....
 that you can barely distinguish one apple from the other through the thick, unrelenting fog...
In fact, you can't even see the entrance of EDEN any longer !!
Suddenly, the beautiful apples become bats and rats and other rodents...
hanging upside down from the branches of dark, foreboding trees....
You cover your face with your hands in order to shield yourself from the onslaught of rodents...
And as you do so, you drop your ONLY BASKET....
EDEN has become a maze of horror and darkness...
You begin running....fast....trying desperately to EXIT the place....
You awaken with sweat and tears having drenched your goose down pillow.....

IS IT ALL RELATIVE ?

What makes a traumatic situation real and not somehow sensationalized or exaggerated ? What constitutes real trauma ? Is it all relative ? I...