This morning while doing my daily scroll I saw the post of the reporter who has been reporting on the ground since the start of this. She couldn’t keep her feelings together while trying to give the news on the gravity of the virus. Choking on her tears as she restarts her script for the 3rd time, she went on to say how she has seen so many families deal with tragedy that runs deep. Seeing how they come together as families, already totally broken, and are now having to host funerals in parking lots. She pleaded with the viewers to take this virus seriously. I was really moved by the genuine emotion, but the thing that really got me was her continuing to apologize for struggling to get through such tragic news. I immediately thought of some of my favorite lyrics:
“Why don't the newscasters cry
When they read about people who die
At least they could be decent enough
To put just a tear in their eyes”
- “The News” by Jack Johnson
It has always been something that has weighed so heavy on me. Why don’t the newscasters cry? HOW do they NOT cry? I would ball my eyes out at the reports, and they would be emotionless! Growing up with these questions burning in my mind has left me a pretty cynical of how the media operates, and in turn, the society that supported it. It's hard to trust anything emotionless.
17 years later, for the first time, I am seeing so many reporters unable to hold back their tears on a more regular basis. As an empath it leaves me feeling heavy. As an advocate for mental health, I am left feeling hopeful. The world deserves our emotion. The people experiencing trauma in all forms deserve our tears. I think about the times I would share a part of my story and how validated and less alone I felt from whomever was experiencing my feelings with me. Imagine the impact for the people dealing with trauma seeing this random newscaster cry on TV? It’s one way I have found healing. Collective healing. Our trauma and experience don’t even need to align. I have experienced so many different gatherings where collective healing occurred. No one needed to know the why. But just giving each other the space to feel by expressing our own initiates so much room for release in others and even more in ourselves. We are all human in the end and the feelings we all go through are where we can find familiarity. I truly believe that is where unity exists. It’s not and never has been in politics, materialism, or even religion in my opinion.
Comments