TABOO
Taboos surround wounds like highway hazard signs:
Avalanche Area,
Beware of Falling Rocks,
Wildlife Corridor,
Deer Crossing.
Severe Storm Area,
Rumble Strips,
Steep Hill,
No Pedestrians.
Fog Area,
Road Slippery When Wet,
Icy, Hairpin Curve,
Circular Intersection.
Give Way,
Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers: State Prison.
One Lane Bridge,
No Shoulder,
No Left Turn, No Right Turn, No U Turn.
Yield,
Stop,
No Entry,
Dead End.
Behind and beyond the Unspeakable and the Untouchable
is the Unbearable:
raw wounds,
bared nerve endings,
hidden pain pathways,
trauma trails,
buried and dis[re]membered memories.
Taboo.
Proceed with Care.
Notes from a Facebook Post, Sept 2018
We all have our own taboos.
And I think it’s good to respect them, and have compassion towards them.
Not that we don’t want to change them, and, as Bess you allude to, ‘lance them’ or ‘open them up’. But if you’re not respectful and very patient you can very easily create even more injury, more pain, and even more deeply embed the taboo.
taboos relate to boundaries. I think that, even more than boundaries, they relate to injuries. I’ve had some good and lasting ones in my life, both physical and emotional, and I recognise that my body has a very instinctive way of protecting itself from further injury (excruciating pain), and emotionally I protect myself by evasiveness, addiction and a number of other strategies.
Note from a Facebook Post, Feb 2015
I think of taboos as a psychic or social ‘flinching’ that occurs around damage and wounds that may be transgenerational. It’s a very powerful and instinctive ‘don’t touch that’ pain reflex. So, they need to be treated cautiously, and there needs to be an understanding of the sources of the wounds. Cavalier ‘taboo breaking’ can create a whole lot more damage than relief, while a wound left alone can suppurate or atrophy.
* Spasm, Splinting, and Change Dynamics: Injury, Immobilisation & Aggravation