Are we listening well enough?
Elliot Rodger was involved in therapy relationships (not necessarily therapeutic) for 14 of his 22 years, and though practitioners of this gentle art of psychotherapy are varied in the traits and talents they possess, he seems to have been lost to those with whom he worked, and however devastating this is to his parents, at some level of intimacy they too may have been lost to him.
The gun issue will be emphasized, and rightly so because a solution must be hammered out with both sides represented at the table of discussion, but the deeper and more compelling issue and concern is the alienation we feel as individuals. We are less and less connected to each other even as or because we are technologically more connected with one another. We can make the distant close but in so doing are we making the close distant? I believe we are.
These tragedies will continue until we find our way into healing — alienation from others is devastating to the marginalized, and, as we too frequently see, can be horrific and devastating to the public as well.
Roger Marum
North Ferrisburgh