Abstract
Each day the television news is filled with film of dying children, slaughtered human beings, starving and war-ravaged humanity. Each day millions of people watch and then do something with that which they have witnessed. They may store it, ignore it, harden to it, self-medicate, or respond to it with action. Suffering is not only on our televisions, it is in our lives.
Time to go into the darkness. That place where every fear and disappointment lives. Where everything that frightened and hurt you as a child lies waiting for a chance at revenge. Every self doubt and recrimination simmers on the back burner in hell’s kitchen surrounded by pools of tears, sweat, and blood. You can hear cries from children there. Children you can never soothe. There in the impenetrable darkness are the eyes. Two big, dark eyes that look like full round moons silently suspended in the pale night. Bottomless pits that cannot veil their ravenous hunger. I cannot look at them fully. I am embarrassed by the naked need and my inability to ease their pain. I turn to walk away and know that in that moment there is no escape. Each time I look into a mirror I see their reflection in my two big eyes. (Co-researcher Mary)
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Qualls, P.A. (1998). On Being with Suffering. In: Valle, R. (eds) Phenomenological Inquiry in Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0125-5_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0125-5_16
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