Viewpoints

Google being “triggered” and content is served up about the psychological effect of being returned to a traumatic experience, a terrible inheritance for those with painful pasts. I recently had two experiences, though, which made me wonder why “triggering” is only associated with pain. Google “recalling happy memories” and the results include terms like “reminisce” which doesn’t come close to capturing what it feels like to revive a happy moment in the same way triggers revive trauma. To reminisce is what you do when those old Facebook posts pop up in your feed, evoking an “Awww” or “That was a great day” or “The kids were so little” or “I was so young.” Triggering is different, it’s visceral. A sound, a smell, a comment, a backdrop actually returning you to the moment before it became...

“Rats with wings.”  That’s the common derogatory descriptor about that common sea bird, the gull. Last summer, one wily airborne rodent grabbed an entire overflowing lobster roll from my hand just as I was taking a first bite. Darn rat!  Mostly though, gulls are a casually observed but uncontemplated part of our daily landscape. We might notice one pecking at an unlucky crab or perched on a neighbor’s chimney. But we don’t give their presence a second thought, even seconds later. Unexpectedly for me, the merely observed recently became the deeply contemplated. I was given the gift of a week staying in a friend’s apartment overlooking Boston Harbor. It was a respite from construction at home, as well from the frustration of a mobility-reducing broken ankle. Dreams of wandering...