A lot of what I write has to do with family trauma that wends its way through the generations — parents passing their damage on to their children, great-grandparents shaping the lives of children born a half-century or more after their own passing. Trauma, and the possibility of healing. I’ve written songs about it, a play, an upcoming book, blogs…

We who have been damaged, we who create damage, and we on whom it falls to help in the healing — we’re one and the same. That’s the truth about families. The same holds for America. We’ve spent nearly a year with our lives on ice, doing our best to survive and live with multiple modern plagues — Covid-19, the incomprehensible toxicity of the body politic during the tenure of the soon-to-be-ex-president, the pervasiveness of institutional racism that was finally brought front-and-center in the wake of George Floyd’s brutal murder, sexual predation exposed by the Me Too movement, and the sexual abuse of children by priests, members Boy Scouts of America and the trainers of some of our nation’s elite gymnasts…

As a nation, we are deeply traumatized. America’s got PTSD. We whose lives have been damaged. We who create the damage, and we on whom it falls to help in the healing — none of us can claim to be above the fray. And if we hope to heal, we need to hear one another, listening and speaking in the spirit of truth and reconciliation. Happy New Year, America! Here’s to sanity, health and hope!