GEOGRAPHY I: EROSION

What does a rock signify to you, class?

Growing up, I noticed a lot of talk about rocks, and how they were synonymous with tough times. “Stuck between a rock and a hard place”, “at rock bottom” and all that. That’s because both rocks and hard times are often rough, and weigh heavily on the body or on the soul. You can use this to your advantage though. If you’re objectifying a tough time as a physical object, it becomes easier to isolate that tough time from the good times and therefore easier to live your life. It’s important not to let the rock sit for too long unattended though, as the weight of the rock over the long term can leave the psyche crushed. Instead use the imagery as a way to compartmentalise temporarily, making sure you always come back to deal with your trauma.

There are a couple of ways you can deal with your trauma.

The first method is to chip away at your trauma, a little bit at a time, making the pieces smaller and easier to deal with. Most people choose this option, because the pain at any given time is lower than the other option. The down side is that you are spreading the pain over a longer period of time.

The second method is to smooth the edges of the rock and deal with the trauma in one chunk, head on. Although this is the most painful way to deal with a trauma, you are not spreading the pain out and the recovery process can start much sooner.

So what does it look like, then, when you don’t face your trauma, and instead you bury it away and lock it up?

Well for that, you can ask Eli Forever.

Eli has had a troublesome existence, exemplified perfectly by the trauma of killing his own father, something which has clearly weighed heavily on him for many years, and something which I don’t think he has dealt with correctly.

Eli likens himself and his teachings to a river, so let’s play his game for a second. The trauma that he has faced in the past take the form of individual rocks, jagged and weighty, being carried down the river of life as it flows through Eli. The issue with leaving those repressed rocks in there without dealing with them is that the longer they are there, the more time they have to collide with the banks of the river, and take chunks with the current. The river banks are like the last barrier between trauma and psyche, and eventually, with enough abrasion from the rocks as they pass, the banks will collapse, and nothing will be able to save Eli from his own mental breakdown.

Of course the banks can be fortified. Eli has been fortifying his banks for months now, but the abrasion is much faster than the reparations.

Eli Forever is a ticking time bomb of repression waiting to do it’s worst. So class remember this. Repression helps nobody except your enemy.

Which means I am in luck this week.