Fractured Nation

What's being revealed right now can be the key to how we recover.

The past 100 days have been jarring, destructive, and devastating on so many levels.

I have been using the metaphor of a fracture to describe the time we are in right now. Just as a bone breaks, the fractures in our body politic are revealing cracks, fissures and fault lines. Under the onslaught of federal actions and executive orders destroying our shared values, polarizing our communities, and deepening decades of neglect, our country could no longer bear the weight as it once did.

The first memory I have of a fracture is the one that my brother endured when he was five and I was ten. We were on the verandah of our home in Trivandrum (India), when a fight began between us. As this was a regular occurrence, my grandparents and mother paid us no mind. But this time, there would be a different outcome. In my anger, I pushed my brother really hard. He fell off the verandah and landed on his arm on the cement floor underneath. In the 30 seconds of complete stillness that ensued, it dawned upon me that I had done something unforgivable and permanent. Then, my brother’s wails pierced the silence.

A few hours later, with guilt and shame bubbling up inside my stomach, I stood outside the room where a doctor was examining my brother’s broken arm. I heard a snap, and then a gasp and a shriek. Later, I would come to understand that the doctor had set the bone, realigning it, creating the conditions for a full recovery. For weeks afterwards, my brother bravely wore a white plaster cast on his arm, as he went up and down the stairs, walked to school, sat in his classes, and ate meals. For my part, my brother’s fracture revealed a lot about myself - how my impatience and anger could cause serious consequences to someone I loved, potentially splintering our bond - and about the long process of physical and emotional healing – and the roles we must all play to support it.

Recently, my brother (now a doctor himself; yes, I’m a proud big sister) explained to me how a fractured bone sets and heals. The break, he said, causes immediate inflammation and pain. The body goes into shock, the surrounding tissues swell, and blood vessels rupture. The muscles around the break spasm in protective response. To deal with the inflammation, the body sends urgent signals to special cells that rush to the site. They create a blood clot around the break and lay the groundwork for repair. This instinctive response sets the stage for what comes next in the process.

During the past 100 days, the fractures in our body politic have given way to acute inflammation, shock, and pain. This is not just a crack on the surface that happened all at once. It built slowly under the strain of decades and generations of neglect, unresolved tensions, and repeated stress.

People and institutions have responded in different ways to the inflammation: heartbreak and loss, outrage and disruption, numbness and fogginess, clarity and solidarity, overwhelm and emotional dysregulation. First responders are rushing to the many sites of trauma: borders, classrooms, nonprofit organizations, college campuses, subway stops, courts, and more. They are scaffolding, messaging, litigating, defending, and marching to send signals to the entire country: something terrible is happening right now.

It’s darkest before the dawn, the saying goes, reminding us that there can be a sharp clarity that emerges from the depths of despair - about what matters most to us, what we are willing to do to fight for it, whom we can rely on and whom we seek to link arms with, as we survey the path ahead. Illusions often fall away right before daylight hits. Many of us have experienced this in our personal lives during times of deep loss and heartbreak. For our national story, this time we are in right now – when we clearly see the faultlines, ruptures, and breaks – is a clarifier like no other.

Before we move to what’s next – a process that includes a reckoning and a revealing, followed by realignment and rerooting - it can be important to sit with the consequences of the rupture. If this metaphor lands with you, here are some invitations for reflection (please feel free to share thoughts in the comments too):

1. From your own vantage point, what broke under the strain of the past 100 days?

2. I write about what I learned about fractures and healing via a personal experience. What can you draw upon from your own life to understand what fractures and fissures can reveal to us?

3. We often skip the part of acknowledging grief and loss in favor of fixing the problem and stopping the inflammation. How has this time expanded your own understanding and experience with grief?

4. Many healers have talked about the trauma responses that are happening right now: some of us are fighting, while others, in our overwhelm, are freezeing or fleeing. Perhaps we exhibit all of these responses during the course of a day even. How would you describe your responses? How can you lend grace and gratitude to them?

5. If you’re part of an organization, how has it been characterizing what broke under the strain of the past 100 days? How has it been reacting and responding to the inflammation?

6. They say it’s darkest before the dawn – when what’s broken becomes visible, and we can get clearer about our values, roles, and community. What’s being revealed to you right now? What’s being revealed about ourselves, our shared values, our national story?

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Dialogues and Conversations Matter More Than Ever…

Join me at book talks and workshops in May and June, where I’m speaking about our fractured nation, what is being revealed, how we can play our roles more effectively and sustainably to strengthen our ecosystems. For full details, please visit www.socialchangemap.com/events. And please do reach out if I can support your organization or network during this time.