Her story is a familiar one in this postmodern world, one that is shared now for many generations, we're told. Sue did her best to appear normal to the community she lived in. She made sure her hair and clothes were neat and presentable when she went out to the grocery store or to church on Sundays. She also ensured her children wore their Sunday best so as not to send the wrong signals to the public. Like her husband, Sue continued to deal with childhood trauma, though she was unaware that it was the main emotional challenge to her nervous system, which was always on the verge of breaking down at any given moment. Childhood is the period of our life where abuse is the most traumatic for us. It's difficult to say exactly what flavors the trauma came in. It is most obvious that her adult siblings were all impacted by abuse, whether physical, verbal, emotional, or sexual, from an alcoholic father and a likely narcissist mother.

Charlie was the fifth of six children born into a German Catholic family. They were farmers, like most people in western Kansas at the time. They practiced Catholicism, as some family members were in the priesthood and nuns lived in convents and taught in Catholic schools. I seem to remember a cousin of his mother who eventually became Bishop of the Wichita Diocese. Despite their religious beliefs, there were clearly issues passed down to the siblings that they carry with them for life, not before passing them on to their children and grandchildren.

The Way, the Truth, the Life

In an earlier conversation today with a friend, I stated how we are neurologically compromised; we are clearly at a disadvantage as postmoderns. We are not doing well as a people, we Westerners. Our culture was created for us to influence the way we operate and behave.