Shared in Stories that we had an event 2 nts ago, where @rwalk56 addressed a group of orthodox Jewish folks on Long Island.
The program was in partnership w a gentleman, Stu Katz, who’s running wkly MH talks by diff speakers, in a program called: Nafshenu Alenu.
So think abt this: you have a black man, military brat, lived in cities all over (from Sacramento to KC), grew up in some areas w guns all arnd him, played in the NFL, & was there to share his story abt: Sexual Abuse btwn the ages of 4-12. He did not look like anyone in the room…did not grow up in the same way…was not exposed to the same culture…& yet we were all in a room together connecting on the one thing that ties us all together – emotional pain.
Reggie’s msg was strong…it’s why he’s on our alliance & I love the guy so much – bc he’s real & gets the bigger picture. He used his experience healing at a treatment center as his analogy for why he was there the other night. At the treatment center: he looked diff from the other 20 folks there. None were pro athletes. And perhaps most importantly, he had no idea what any of their diagnoses were. None had been thru the same abuse as him in the same way. But they all healed together, in community, by sharing their common emotional pain from the trauma they’d each experienced.
So, it did not matter the other nt how “different” he/his experiences were in the room together, he was there to open his arms, welcome them all in, tell them he was there for them.
The questions that came from this session were heartfelt & beautiful – & it was the result of Reggie’s openness & msg.
On these slides ➡️I tried to show that visually – trauma experienced, race/ethnicity, does not matter – differences that all have one common similarity that bring us together.
You can see in the following slides: Reg w a Torah for the first time…then a pic of us w Stu, the organizer for these community events.
This cross-pollination is what our world needs. It’s the antithesis of what gets the A!go’s going on these social channels bc it’s the opposite of labels & division & buckets & victims & controversy.
We need more of THIS!
