Surviving Savannah

by Patti Callahan Henry

I know this: we’re made of stories, legends and myths just as we are made of water, atoms and flesh. Once you know it, you can’t un-know it; you can’t pretend that everything that happened before you were born doesn’t have something to do with who you are today.

The idea that surviving brings everyone to a new and better place is a lie told by people who need the world to make sense.”

We are our truest selves when life and death walk hand in hand. When crisis comes, and tragedy explodes, our true character comes to the fore.

We are who we are because of the past, not in spite of it. How can we understand ourselves unless we understand where we came from?

‘What can anyone give you greater than now, starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?’”

Not everyone who survives trauma becomes a better person. The idea that surviving brings everyone to a new and better place is a lie told by people who need the world to make sense.