…Before and After the Bloomborg attacked me, that is.
This is why I have returned to blogging. Five years after being sent to the
Rubber Room, I am going to have to admit to myself that I am a different person
after suffering at the hands of Principal ShTey, and I’m not going to just “get
over it” and bounce back to the way I was before. Finally I have to accept that there are parts of me that
will never be recovered. I now
only have memories of preBloomborg Moriah. Before they too fade away, I would like to try to recapture
who I was. It’s a little like trying
to recover an old photograph that has been damaged by Hurricane Sandy. It’s worth retrieving, but the damage
will now also be a part of the photographic record.
What does Lily’s story mean to me today?
When Lily told me her story, I didn’t know what it meant to
try my hardest to accomplish something, to actually succeed, and to then be
treated as if I had done nothing of any value at all. I didn’t know that in the beginning, injustice could create
the fire of anger, and with that fire, I could spur myself on to even greater
achievements. I didn’t know
that sustained injustice can turn the fire into smoldering
embers of hatred that suck out all the oxygen needed for thought and action. In this reduced state, everything slows
down. Bones seem to turn to
water. Memory becomes sketchy and
undependable. Thoughts slow down
and become repetitive. It’s hard
to start a job, and hard to finish it, because everything will ultimately be
labeled Unsatisfactory. Nothing
matters.
Before Bloomberg, I sympathized with Lily and wanted to help
prevent further injustices from happening. However, my
sympathy was cerebral. After
Bloomberg, I had an understanding
that came directly from the gut. Empathy.
Identity. It had happened
to me.