Cascading Collective Traumas

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I work in the construction safety business.

Throughout the last 15 years of my career I’ve begrudgingly accepted the fact that anywhere between 4 and 8 lives would be lost in the Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse areas.

Still way too many, but a great deal of attention is certainly paid to working safely. There are a number of good safety people and OSHA, despite using the citation book as a hammer, also helps.

Yet, in 2021 there were more than 20 fatalities in the same general area.

Why?????

I had a long talk with some of the other safety dudes and we were certainly of the opinion that workers are distracted.

Not by their jobs, but by life around them.

Covid. The insurrection. Gas prices. Corporate price gouging. Mass shootings.

And then last night I read an article about it, and they noted that cascading collective traumas are distracting all of us.

I wonder how many people would concede that the last five years or so has derailed what we believed about living here in America.

A tad unsteady, now, right?

We are waiting, each day, for another shoe to drop. I know the expression is waiting for the other shoe to drop but there have been so many dropping shoes that we have grown used to being surrounded by footwear.

The phone chimes and I cringe.

“Active shooter!”

“So and so has been subpoenaed.”

“The drought out west. Fires. Heat waves.”

Cascading collective traumas.

I tried the news yesterday.

They were talking about the 2024 presidential election.

I couldn’t change the channel fast enough.

Why do they sell elections in this country?

More than two years down the road!

We don’t even know who might be running!

The current field favorites are old men.

One is possibly facing an orange jumpsuit.

Do we truly need analysis of an election that is presented to further divide?

Can’t those who are in charge of eliminating cascading collective trauma ease the minds of the work force a little?

We all need to keep our minds on our jobs.

And our families and our golf swings.

And we need to get better at ducking the dropping shoes.

Normal, routine, boring days would be great.

Will it ever happen again?


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