We joke around here about starting up a drinking game where anytime someone says "Before Katrina" or "After Katrina," you have to take a drink. If we really did this we'd all be fall down drunks at any casual get-together...
It's a fact that is tightly woven into the fabric of our lives, but for the most part, I for one have pretty well adjusted... for the purposes of continuing normal life anyway. Even though it's always there, we've responded to social expectations that we "get over it" by doing exactly that. After all, you're not supposed to grieve after a certain point or people start to get persnickety and judgmental.
I always loved this one too: "Well you should be thankful you have your life." Yes. My life. As in, I am still able to take breaths in and out. Of course that is wonderful and deeply meaningful if your LIFE consists of standing still in nothingness taking breaths in and out. Subtract your neighbors and friends and family who live close to you, your local store, all of your photos and mementos with special meaning, your home... and then tell those who have lost all of those very large parts of their lives that it's really all OK, and they should just be happy to be alive. When you're the person on the receiving end of such a comment, it sounds unbelievably ludicrous. And it is.
The crazy thing is, there is no "getting over it." It lives deep within us, but from time to time something triggers its rise to the surface.
