It was a tragic evening in Bautzen, Germany. A twenty-seven-year-old trapeze artist, flying through the air, missed her hold and fell to her death in front of horrified children and their parents. The big top went silent. The gasps of awe turned into cries of horror. And then—what surprised me most—the government immediately issued a notice offering psychological help to the audience. Professional counsellors were dispatched, ready to guide trembling children and shaken parents back to what they called “normal life.”
I wondered: what on earth is “normal life” anymore?
Because here in our country, I see so many of us walking the tightrope of hate every day. Unlike that young trapeze artist who fell by accident, our fall is deliberate. We are pushed, prodded, and sometimes gleefully shoved by hate-mongering leaders and loudmouths on television who make a living convincing us to despise our neighbour. If ever a nation needed psychologists, dear reader, it is us!
Think of it. The Germans call counsellors after a tragedy. We need counsellors after every election rally and news broadcast.
Also, what trauma a child carries after listening to a parent abuse another community over dinner?
What scars remain when an impressionable youth is told that his worth comes only from tearing someone else down?
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting we replace election rallies with therapy sessions, though frankly it might be a healthier use of stadium space. But just imagine—psychologists sitting with party leaders, saying, “Tell us about your childhood… did your grandmother fill your ears with stories of partition? Did your uncle whisper about superiority till it became your bedtime lullaby? Or are you shouting so loudly because deep down you feel inferior?”
Oh, what sessions those would be! The entire nation could tune in live, replacing prime-time debates with prime-time diagnoses. “Tonight at 9, Dr. Freud takes on Mr. Big Chest—don’t miss it!”
But jokes aside, it is we ordinary people who need this healing most. Like the children in Bautzen who watched something they could not unsee, millions of us are being made to watch spectacles of hate we never asked for. And unlike Germany’s quick response, where professionals helped bring back calm, we are left to nurse our trauma in silence, or worse, pass it on.
So maybe it’s time we give our leaders psychological help—not because they saw a trapeze artist fall, but because they keep pushing us into a free fall. And once the politicians are healed, we will know the meaning of ‘normal life’ One where we laugh with our neighbors, not at them. Where we shake hands, not fists. Where the only high wire act worth watching is in a circus—and not the dangerous way we balance hate and harmony.
Now wouldn’t those be therapy sessions worth sending them to?
The Author conducts an online, eight session Writers and Speakers Course. If you’d like to join, do send a thumbs-up to WhatsApp number 9892572883 or send a message to bobsbanter@gmail.com
