Three Russian soldier honor guard
Taxi Ride
A child that lives with ridicule learns to be timid.
A child that lives with criticism learns to condemn.
A Child that lives with distrust learns to be deceitful.
A child that lives with affection learns to love.
A child that lives with truth learns justice.
A child that lives with happiness will find love and beauty.
- Ronald Russell (Lessons From Life)
November 10th
and I hop into the back of a Moscow taxi. It's after 7pm, drizzly and
cold. I'm exhilarated after a long weekend with sixty-five exuberant
folks. I'm also tired. Beside me sits Petr. He will replace Julia as
translator later this week in Rostov-on-Don when I return there to
complete this three-week Russian trip.
Petr
and I met only a couple of hours ago. Our get together tonight is
designed to give us time to acquaint with one another's speech patters
enabling translations to go as seamlessly as possible in a few days when
we'll serve a corporate group. Petr has been talking nonstop: martial
arts; his abilities with sticks as weapons; his dark side street
escapades of confrontation. He's curious about aikido as a way to foster
peace.
As
the cab door closes Petr opens up with an unexpected admission, "We
have a real problem here in Russia with violence. Most of it doesn't
make the news. We're in denial. A lot of war veterans are having bad
times. They're into drugs and alcohol and hard violence." I ask,
"Afghanistan?" "Yes."He continues, "PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder].
It's the same thing here in Russia as in the USA." An interesting
conversation starts to unfold, made even more so given I haven't
generated it or mentioned PTSD in any of our discussions. But, PTSD has
been on my mind recently.
The three days immediately preceding this trip I attended the annual Aiki-Extensions Conference, this year hosted at Sofia University, Palo Alto, California. Of the many presentations, two grabbed my attention: Body Awareness in Trauma and Peace Making by Paul Linden, PhD, and Janice Taitel, MD; and Aikido as a Component in Holistic Therapy
by Tom Osborn. Both presentations addressed the PTSD needs facing
individuals, families and communities. Both addressed the findings and
constructive impact that these three practitioners have had integrating
aikido into their efforts to address that need.
Paul
and Janice outlined the impact that movement has had with their clients
and patients, and demonstrated through audience participation how
aikido was assisting efforts to un-anchor and reframe experiences held
by those suffering from PTSD. Tom, now into his seventies, served with
the 101st Airborne Division. For twenty-four months he was on
Special Forces A teams in Viet Nam. He outlined the impact of his work
with aikido at Veterans Administration facilities - there to serve vets
and staff. On my flight into Russia I read his book, Combat Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Holistic Approach. It is quite compelling. I urge you to order a copy through Amazon.
The
reason these presentations impacted me is because I know first-hand
from George Leonard why The Samurai Game® was created - that being to
deepen an understanding about the long-term impacts of war without
having to actually succumb to the physical injury or death as a result.
As a social philosopher George wanted people to consider questions like
this, "Why does the human race keep doing war when we individually and
collectively know what it always creates?"He wanted us to take this
question personally to heart when it comes to our own personal "wars".
These
presentations also impacted me because of the thirteen years that
aikido has been a major part of my life. I have witnessed people, many
of them otherwise and previously combative, transform themselves and
their responses to conflict. The impact of the presentation also
touched my formative years.
As
a kid I lived in a home constantly on guard against what might happen
if the wrong thing was said at the wrong time to my dad. I learned how
to be hyper-vigilant, and how to anticipate responses in tense
situations. In those days I didn't understand why my dad would flinch at
the sound of a jet flying overhead. I couldn't understand why certain
holidays triggered violent responses in him. But years of experience
have deepened my understanding.
Tonight
I'm sitting in this taxi and having a chat with Petr. Tomorrow is
Veteran's Day back home. I'm a vet. My brother is a vet. My father and
his brother were WWII vets. My brother-in-law is a vet. My nephew is a
vet. His son, currently serving as a US Marine, just returned from a
warzone. I was never in combat. But I know the stuff of PTSD and how it
affects a family. PTSD is not limited to persons who have been in a
military conflict or navigated their way through a war zone. It's more
prevalent in our societies and having a greater impact in our economic
policies, politics, and social and business environments than we think
or that we want to admit.
Hoping
to not be overly simplistic or appear foolish, I would offer many
people (including you?) could relate to aspects (and possibly
experiences) of PTSD if they will stop, think, feel and get in touch
with their bodies.
Have
you ever found yourself involved in confrontation or a dangerous
situation where you felt your safety severely threatened? Afterwards,
were you ever on guard against similar situations and/or physically
triggered by environments reflective of the environment surrounding that
prior threat? If you can honestly answer "yes", then you know what I
mean.
When
I was 12 years old and on a hunting trip, the jeep my dad was driving
flipped over. It pinned my head to the ground. Luckily, my brother
scrambled out in time to lift the jeep's back end off my body. My dad
had a quick moment to pull me out before my brother set the jeep back
down. Over the next few years whenever we would hunt near that place, I
became nauseous and shaky. I would refuse to go on if we got too close
to where we'd had the accident.
Tonight
I shared with Petr that as America was heading into Afghanistan, a
group of friends and I were asked what we might say to people high up in
our military and national security apparatus who would have to carry
out a Presidential order to undertake combat operations. We were asked
to imagine that we would only have only a few seconds to give advice
knowing that it wasn't a matter of "if we go in", rather "when we go
in." This question came from someone who was about to attend a meeting
of top officials actually confronting that situation in reality. I
recall saying, "Tell them to talk to the Russians before they go." Why
was that my response? Because the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan
quite literally broke the USSR's economic back and shattered their
national psyche.
The
taxi is long gone and so is Petr. He spoke his "спокойной ночи." In a
few days he will be with me in Rostov-on-Don to serve as a translator.
Back in the hotel I've spent time sending thank you notes to family and
buddies back home who have served in the military. Among them is Al
Takata. Like Tom Osborn, Al was with the Special Forces in Viet Nam. He
left the Army a highly decorated lieutenant colonel, and carried with
him many deep secrets. He's a great guy, and today a man of love and
forgiveness.
An
email pops into my mailbox as I head to bed. It's from Al, returning
thanks for my having served in the Army. In closing he writes these
unexpected, yet gracious words, "The Samurai Game brought me back from
Viet Nam and was the factor that made me realize that I was suffering
from PTSD. Without that awareness I could not begin my healing. Today I
am 99% well. Love, Al."
Halfway
around the world Al Takata has no knowledge of the specifics I've lived
through these days in Russia, or of the Aiki-Extension Conference
attended a few weeks ago in Palo Alto, or of the conversation and topic
discussed this evening in a taxi with a young man named Petr.
It's past midnight in Moscow. What time is it in America?
You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good bye.
Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked, the one you'll know by.
- Crosby Stills Nash Young (Teach Your Children)
© Lance Giroux, November 2013
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