Wonderbringers Newsletter with Monica Parker
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Hello Wonderseekers!
This week saw the passing of Clint Hill at age 93. Hill was one of the Secret Service agents on duty the fateful day in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Images from that Dallas shooting are seared into the American visual lexicon, one of which is of Hill leaping onto the back of the motorcade vehicle in an attempt to shield the president from the shooter.
In the aftermath of JFK’s shooting, ruminating quietly behind the circus of conspiracy theories that continue to swirl to this day, Hill was haunted by traumatic guilt for what he saw as his failure to react quickly enough to save the president. Despite being lauded a hero and no one believing there was anything more he could have done to protect the president, Hill’s guilt ‘kept Dewars White Label in business’ as he anaesthetised himself against the nightmares of that day.
Guilt, whether viewed as distinct from or a subset of regret, is an inwardly focused moral shame that can fester over time, even if others see no cause for it. Guilt can also cause what’s known as moral injury, a term initially coined to describe a type of mental combat wound distinct from PTSD. Moral injury occurs when we are forced to do something we ultimately feel guilty for—like the drafted soldier required to kill someone on the battlefield or the NHS nurse who has to put a sick person in the hallway due to overcrowding.
Moral injury also occurs when others violate our sense of right and wrong, like when people close to us support political ideals that we find abhorrent or seek to undermine those we hold in esteem. These transgressions strike deeply, causing us to lose our belief in humanity, breaking our trust in systems and, over time, leading to an existential collapse of our identity. (We saw the results of moral injury when hundreds of thousands of medical professionals quit after COVID-19.)
So how can a wonder practice inoculate us from moral injury?
Openness: Staying open allows us to acknowledge (and eventually silence) our inner critic. It also opens our eyes to the reality that moral injury is more complex than just ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people or decisions.
Curiosity: Curiosity enhances self-compassion, helping us become observers of our own experiences while inhibiting judgment of others.
Absorption: A presence practice like meditation, prayer or journaling stops rumination and builds our emotional regulation.
Awe: Moral injury destroys connectedness, whereas awe, especially shared awe experiences, promotes connectedness. Awe also expands our moral concept, helping us see different points of view so we can reframe moral injury.
Some wonderbringers for me this week:
When guilt is good: In a world that is growing more divided and atomized, it may be guilt—not empathy—that can bring people together.
What gets enemies to negotiate: The value of anger, guilt, and future thinking for finding common ground.
Moral injury is an invisible epidemic that affects millions: A specific kind of trauma results when a person’s core principles are violated.
Thank you for all the interest in the Vision Boarding session! It will be held live on Thursday April 4th at 4:30pm GMT (11:30am ET, 8:30am PT). A recording will be available for those who cannot join live.
It is free for Wonderbringers subscribers, so if you have any folks who would like to join, forward them this email so they can subscribe to get access.
Get in touch if you want an invite!
With wonder,
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