The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience
April 11th, 2018-TCS # 590
Let’s Talk, My Readers! So, as The Late Joan Rivers would say on Her Show Fashion Police, “Let’s Talk” and This is a “Let’s Talk” Newsletter indeed. It was her Trademark Line on that show when It came to Challenging Talks about Who wore what The Worst to What Event, and trying to criticize that without either Shaming them too much, or Making them feel horrible for Whatever They wore that They paid pretty much a Million Dollars for. I digress. So, Let’s Talk! So, This is going to a rather Challenging Newsletter for Me so Bear with Me. So, Let’s Talk about Two Things, Crazes and Triggers. Yes, That Triggers! So, In case You are not into Pop Culture, The Word, “Trigger” (or “Triggered” to be more precise) is a Common Word among Young People, It basically means “To be Upset at or With Something”. The Best Example I can think is When Patriotic Americans (My Name for “Trump Conservatives”) call those Opposite of Them, “Triggered Liberals” basically, People who are of Libertarian Decent getting upset about Something Political, Trump-related or not. Now, That is My Political Mind speaking, This is what This is NOT about. Anyway, Then, We have to talk about Crazes. Every Generation goes through Some Kind of Craze like Furbies, Different Video Games, Challenges (like The Cinnamon Challenge or The Most Recently, The TidePod Challenge). Now, When I was growing up, It was a Number of Things including Furbies, Geo-Pet (Something like that), and My Least Favorite, A Toy called Nickelodeon Gak) For Me, Just to Hear, See, Speak, or Even Write that Word makes My Stomach Turn. Now, These Days the Craze about town Turned to Slime. Which is like The “G-Word”, We will call it. But, It has come back up in what is Called “Slime-making Videos” on YouTube. It is Easy to make, So I am told. I am also told that Above All Videos on The Internet these Days, It is The Least Negative and Pretty Much The Only Type of Video that does not Play any kind of Message or Politics. So, Back to Triggers, We all have Our Own Triggers (Or Things that Upset Us a lot) , Whether It is Claustrophobia (Tight Spaces); Elevators (Believe Me, that was a Huge Trigger growing up.) I blame Grandma on My Dad’s Side telling me a Story of Her getting stuck in an Elevator. To This Day, I am Okay about it but, I would Rather not be in The Elevator by Myself for Very Long; Fear of Heights, Among Many Others. So, Here’s a Question, I am sure that You are Asking. What are Mine, and What is The Point? So, Mine are Gooey Substances like Gak, Slime, Silly Putty (or Silly Putty Equivalent), Silly String, and Anything that might look like It); Babies Crying (Basically, Something that can not be Controlled); and, Finally, People/Animals in Distress (Basically, People Crying, Being Upset, or Screaming for Help). So, Then, What happens when All Your Triggers occur at The Same Time.
Now, I noticed that All Three Happened while I was in Atlanta recently. Some Part of Me knew that At Some Point during Whatever Craze is Happening that I would eventually run into It somehow. You can’t get away from Crazes! For Example, Gak (The G-Word), They made it in My Class when I was Younger, Sold It at an Economic Fair back in 4th Grade, and Of Course, The Newest Craze at The Time, “The Nickelodeon Store”. This is the First Trigger I want to talk about. Anyway, so Until a Couple Years ago, Kids only came to visit The Complex where My Grandma Honey lives, until They built a School down the Street from Her House. Today, There are More Kids living in Grandma Honey’s Complex. So, Kids naturally want to be Entrepreneurs, It is The American Way after all. For Some, It is selling Lemonade, and They do that during The Summer, but While I was there, They were Selling Slime. They had The Computer to show the making of it and They set Prices for Each One They made. Seeing This when I arriving, Made My Nerves shoot Way Up. My Stomach was pretty much in Knots the whole time I was there, for Fear that Someone in My Family might buy it, and The Kids may come and Visit with it in Their Hands. Thank God, They did not, but Still. I had a talk with my Grandma Honey about this and she understood. It was just the Anxiety of what might happen that bothered me all weekend.
The Next Trigger is Babies Crying, or in Distress. I understand that Babies cry, It is what They do. It is Their Language. Not Sure Why We call it “Crying”, But We do. “We were Babies at One Time”, My Grandma Honey says. and, She is right. In Fact, She was once a Baby. It is just amazing how a Human can come out of Another Human! Now, Don’t Get Me Wrong, I don’t Hate Babies. They are Cute and Cuddly, They make funny Noises, They smell Good, and When They are Old Enough, They can Laugh. However, Babies do Cry to get what They need. I don’t like when Babies Cry. Now, If it is something that is Short-Term, like If They Need a Bottle because They are Hungry; They have a Poop in their Diaper or They want to be Held. That is Simple. Just do what They need. However, If Babies are Crying because of Teething, In An Airplane, If Something that can not be done to Stop The Crying. Then, To Me, They are in Distress. When They are in Distress, I feel the need to Help and If They can’t, then I feel Helpless and It gets me all Upset along with Them. The Time at Grandma Honey’s was Okay. Baby Jace was a Quiet Baby. There are Babies that are Quiet like I was, I hardly ever Cried when I was a Baby and Then, There are Those that Cry all The Time, like My Brother when He was a Baby. By The Way, He would not JUST Cry, He would Scream and Cry. When I was Younger, When My Brother would Cry, I would Cry with Him because I felt like How He felt. Now, Even though Baby Jace was a Quiet Baby, I did not know that before hand and It caused My Anxiety to Panic because I knew that a Baby was coming and I did not know What to do or Where to go in The Event that He cried a lot. Considering The Kids with The Slime outside, I had Less Options.
The Third Trigger is People and Animals in Distress. If People are Upset, Crying, Confused (like Dementia), or Animals Whining, It bothers me! Like The Babies, I can not do anything to help them so, I feel Helpless. If I can give The Person a Hug, then It helps me a little, like The Lady at Great Clips. So, For Example, My Aunt Carolee was Angry-Distressed at Something and I did not how to help, so I tried to get My Mind on Something Else. The Problem is I never know when It is going to Happen.
So, When I was Younger, I did not know how to Handle My Triggers and Other People did not understand me. My Mom knows When I am experiencing These Triggers and She helps me learn how to Handle Them. These and Other Triggers are common in us PTLSers, It just takes others to understand us. All in all, Having Triggers is not Fun but, Once You learn to Manage Them, It becomes Easier.
Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Triggers are a Part of Life. Learn How to Manage Them.
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