Why? Why do we suffer?
When Jordan Peterson started talking about chaos and order—the fog started to lift.
Chaos was the word that really caught my attention. He was legitimizing it—a word I had been using in my own book on forgiveness. We were on the same page.
As I listened to him, I realized that his and my journey were strangely similar. We had both begun with an old-fashioned religious experience; mine had worked for me as I had continued to build on it spiritually. His hadn’t and that had forced him to explore God again and in a new way and rediscover the importance of God through a brilliant and deeply scientific search for meaning.
In his explorations to find meaning, he talks a lot about Genesis and the garden of Eden – our story of origin. I had to go back there too.
This similar starting place – is actually not that unusual. In my work with parents of murdered children, we all seemed to have to go back there to answer the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
Except Peterson returned to it with science, lectures and discussions. I process a new thought by “fictionalizing” them which I did by imagining the garden through the eyes of a dove, “CeeCee.” To write this novel, I went right back to the original languages – translations commentaries and everything else I could find on the Garden of Eden. It was fun and insightful. That’s when I found the word “chaos” in those first important verses which seemed to unlock everything for me. (I should actually finish that novel as well.)
After identifying the word, “chaos” I went on to explore the word “trauma” another issue we were encountering as parents of murdered children.
I still remember when I first heard the label Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. One of our support group members suggested inviting a guest—a Vietnam draft dodger—who had introduced her to the concept. I then began my formal training as a therapist and started to work with traumatized clients.
As I studied trauma, I kept wondering how the Bible fit into psychology. It was a question that had lingered in my mind for years. I even approached professors at the theological college where my husband studied, asking why psychology wasn’t part of the curriculum. They dismissed me—ever so politely.
Yet the more I studied both Genesis and trauma, the more clearly I saw it: the story of Adam and Eve powerfully illustrates trauma—perhaps even PTSD—with more clarity than some modern thinkers, including Gabor Maté. That was when I realized: the Bible isn’t behind the times—it’s ahead of them. Again, Peterson and I were aligned.
Then, as I continued to doze listening to his words, he coupled “chaos” with “order.”
Leaving me with the question, how do we bring order back into chaos? – My way – my answer – is that we forgive….
That lightbulb moment, helped me get out of my bed and finally finish my book Impossible, forgiveness to the power of five. It is out there now – on Amazon. We haven’t launched it but it is out there.
In a surprising way, Peterson became the one who “talked” me back to life.
“As pessimistic as I am about the nature of human beings and our capacity for atrocity and malevolence and betrayal and laziness and inertia, and all those things, I think we can transcend all that and set things straight.” — Jordan Peterson
Chaos was the word that really caught my attention. He was legitimizing it—a word I had been using in my own book on forgiveness. We were on the same page.
As I listened to him, I realized that his and my journey were strangely similar. We had both begun with an old-fashioned religious experience; mine had worked for me as I had continued to build on it spiritually. His hadn’t and that had forced him to explore God again and in a new way and rediscover the importance of God through a brilliant and deeply scientific search for meaning.
In his explorations to find meaning, he talks a lot about Genesis and the garden of Eden – our story of origin. I had to go back there too.
This similar starting place – is actually not that unusual. In my work with parents of murdered children, we all seemed to have to go back there to answer the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
Except Peterson returned to it with science, lectures and discussions. I process a new thought by “fictionalizing” them which I did by imagining the garden through the eyes of a dove, “CeeCee.” To write this novel, I went right back to the original languages – translations commentaries and everything else I could find on the Garden of Eden. It was fun and insightful. That’s when I found the word “chaos” in those first important verses which seemed to unlock everything for me. (I should actually finish that novel as well.)
After identifying the word, “chaos” I went on to explore the word “trauma” another issue we were encountering as parents of murdered children.
I still remember when I first heard the label Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. One of our support group members suggested inviting a guest—a Vietnam draft dodger—who had introduced her to the concept. I then began my formal training as a therapist and started to work with traumatized clients.
As I studied trauma, I kept wondering how the Bible fit into psychology. It was a question that had lingered in my mind for years. I even approached professors at the theological college where my husband studied, asking why psychology wasn’t part of the curriculum. They dismissed me—ever so politely.
Yet the more I studied both Genesis and trauma, the more clearly I saw it: the story of Adam and Eve powerfully illustrates trauma—perhaps even PTSD—with more clarity than some modern thinkers, including Gabor Maté. That was when I realized: the Bible isn’t behind the times—it’s ahead of them. Again, Peterson and I were aligned.
Then, as I continued to doze listening to his words, he coupled “chaos” with “order.”
Leaving me with the question, how do we bring order back into chaos? – My way – my answer – is that we forgive….
That lightbulb moment, helped me get out of my bed and finally finish my book Impossible, forgiveness to the power of five. It is out there now – on Amazon. We haven’t launched it but it is out there.
In a surprising way, Peterson became the one who “talked” me back to life.
“As pessimistic as I am about the nature of human beings and our capacity for atrocity and malevolence and betrayal and laziness and inertia, and all those things, I think we can transcend all that and set things straight.” — Jordan Peterson
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