Abyss

Dale is right, of course. There is nothing to look at, save the mental health of young men in our society, and why so many are broken enough to shoot up a movie theater. But that is my job, to look, without flinching, at the broken, the gaping wounds, mop up the blood and guts. To face the grieving in their raw losses, to touch the newly wounded and reassure them in the long road ahead.

Not that I always know what to say to those victims of violence on their third or fifth surgery, months, maybe years later. Let them feel they are in good hands, competence and concern without pity, attention to their families who wait. That's about it, just not make it all worse.

Or being the nurse for the perpetrator, that takes a different kind of mindset. Universal compassion. I do not know their story, how hard their journey, the damage in their brains, stains on their souls. Not for me to judge, only to do my job as well as possible every time for everyone. Professional and calm, meticulous and capable.

So, I look. I read everything I can, grist to the mill, data to be considered. The gory and the ugly, sore and gaping is all my job to examine and try to comprehend.


I gaze into the dark abyss of the soul for a living.


This, over at jo(e)'s had me sobbing.