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We're a year into the pandemic, but the wave of grief is still cresting, and we won't even be able to gather to mourn for months yet.
I wrote about mass trauma, lost rituals, and what comes next. Please read and RT. Thanks. https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/11/opinions/covid-19-grief-wave-is-coming-perry/index.html
I wrote about mass trauma, lost rituals, and what comes next. Please read and RT. Thanks. https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/11/opinions/covid-19-grief-wave-is-coming-perry/index.html
"On Thursday, ten of us get to stand outside in sub-zero weather for 15 minutes at a military graveyard as soldiers fire a salute and play taps. Then we'll scatter back into the Minnesota winter."
That was this morning.
That was this morning.
It's not just the 470K and the people reeling from those losses, but the over 3 million dead (just in this country) and all the hundreds of millions of us who haven't been able to mourn.
"Our mental health systems aren't ready. Our spiritual leaders may not be ready either. We'll have to be proactive both in building capacity to support mourning and encouraging people to take care of themselves in an era of post-Covid trauma."
But also I hope we think pragmatically: Our HR policies that focus on short-term bereavement leave with documented excuses for time off are shaped around the expectation that we'll have funerals shortly after a death.
For those of us in higher ed: our absence policies likewise insist on proving loss. Think about the "dead grandmother" jokes.
"My boss has made it clear that I can take as much time away as I want, and there's no question that when we have our memorial in August, or November, or a year from now, my boss will let me go to that too. But having a good boss is not a system."
So: "We're going to need to engage each other without demanding that people prove they are still struggling. Assume that everyone is struggling with the trauma of living through a year of mass death, faced mostly alone."
Mostly alone.
Mostly alone.
Thanks for reading through the thread. Please, if you can bear it, take a moment and read the piece and share it. It was hard to write. I'd like it to be read. https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/11/opinions/covid-19-grief-wave-is-coming-perry/index.html
