Pandemic Resilience? Remnants
“…we need a break.”
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POETRY
The idea for this poem came as I had been giving yet another talk on pandemic resilience to my physician colleagues of various specialties. A recommendation in disaster mental health is to try to find meaning in challenges; however, everyone (including myself) seemed to feel beaten down at that point in time. My read on it was, “let somebody else sort out the self-actualization stuff; we just need a break.”
I have no plans to search for meaning in this trauma;
The tiers of Maslow’s hierarchy have crumbled down upon me
and I remain buried.
Let someone else sift for fortune or detritus among the remnants.
Dr McLean is clinical professor and chair of psychiatry and behavioral science at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
