Blog # 44…April 2015
Post traumatic stress disorder is in the news a lot these
days, usually with particular reference to soldiers. A strange paradox is that
many of them feel it was the best time of their lives with its camaraderie and
sense of purpose. It’s a complicated and very individual phenomenon with far
reaching effects into society. I’ve been noticing lately that attention is increasingly
being focused on the families, who are equally traumatized, sometimes even more
so.
We always feel for the people who lose their loved ones in a
war, also for those who survive. Why do we think that homecoming will be a
happy event and life will pick up smoothly where it left off…nothing could be
further from the truth. It’s become the stuff
of a number of dramas across a range of media, the wildly popular Downton Abbey for one.
Back in 1946, The Best
Years of our Lives won the best picture Oscar for telling stories of the
scarred veterans returning to society after WW2. A few years later, Marlon Brando in The Men played a man who came home from the
war paralyzed and struggling to find his place in the world he’d left. The effects of the pointless and evil war the
Americans launched in Viet Nam
was examined in The Deer Hunter and Coming Home.
What’s emerging now, in several TV series on specialty
channels (where the best drama is to be seen these days) is a fascinating look
at the families and friends who are the observers (also casualties) of the effects war has on combatants. Everyone who watched Homeland will remember the poignancy of Brody’s return home, the painful
awkwardness of life that never seemed to get better. The inspiration for that
show was an Israeli series, Prisoners of
War that deals with the situation in
a much more nuanced and sensitive way…maybe because war in general and the
taking of prisoners in particular has been a constant presence in that country
for over half a century.
Basetrack live is
a multi media performance piece currently touring US stages. Brutally frank and gritty, it was created by
some photo journalists who were imbedded with a US Marine corps in an active
war zone in Afghanistan ,
others were at home, interviewing the people closest to the soldiers…mothers,
girlfriends, fathers, brothers. They also link the two groups for live
conversations that are gripping and poignant, almost too painful to watch.
There are so many victims of war – increasingly innocent
civilians, including children, seem to be not just collateral damage but
specific targets. Wars have always been with us, and probably always will be
despite the claim 100 years ago of “the war to end all wars”. No need for
pictures to know the horror, but
important to keep reminding ourselves how lucky we are to live where and when
we do… and calm down next time the raccoons upset the garbage bins…
