Emotional landscape

Today she is reliving a memory in her mind! She had volunteered to offer counseling to a group of Maldivians – who had suffered great loss in Tsunami 2004. She was daunted by this task. These people had suffered one of the worst experiences – loosing of loved ones, loosing of lifetime wealth in fraction of seconds and everything washed away. Then came the long days in relief camps, fear of water in the water locked country and corpses which cannot be identified. This haunted them, fearing the corpses were the family or loved ones lost. What could she offer these people in terms of help? How could she possibly relate to their suffering?

She thought … “what do all these people want to talk about, once they could see a counselor?”

It was all: I met this guy when I was living in the temporary relief camp, and we fell in love. I thought he really loved me, but then we were separated after the relief shelters were built up, and he took up with my cousin. Now he’s married to her, but he says he really loves me, and he keeps calling me, and I know I should tell him to go away, but I still love him and I can’t stop thinking about him. And I don’t know what to do…..

This is what we are like. Collectively as a species, this is our emotional landscape. She read a book and found a myth which said “There are two questions that human beings have ever fought over all through history: How much do you love me? And who’s in charge?” Everything else is manageable. But these two questions of love and control undo us all, trip us up and cause war, grief and suffering.