Answering an unimaginable, unwanted call.

Sean Fitzpatrick • June 17, 2022
A man and a child are standing in a cave holding hands.

Answering an unimaginable, unwanted call

June 17, 2022

Friends,

Most mornings, my 13 year old son wakes up at 6:15 am and stumbles out to the couch, where he goes back to sleep for an hour. Usually he finds me there, or I find him, and he uses me as a pillow. It’s been this way since he was born; we’re tuned into each other’s rhythms in the morning. Usually I read the news on my phone while he sleeps. Today, I couldn’t.

Uvalde is about four hours from our home. Santa Fe, Texas is much closer — only an hour away. Sutherland Springs is closer, too — about two hours. El Paso is a day away by car. Buffalo, New York, and Laguna Beach, California, are a flight away. So is Orlando, home of the Pulse Nightclub, and Parkland, Florida, the home of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. Danny and I happened to watch a short piece on Marjorie Stoneman Douglas’ activism this weekend, which saved the Everglades from development. The survivors of the shooting at her namesake high school live her spirit as they answer the unimaginable, unwanted call to speak their experience, to shock us into a collective accountability we continue to avoid.

Our namesake, C.G. Jung, wrote that “…when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate.” The conflicts we do not resolve get enacted in the world. This is as true of a community or a nation as it is of an individual. Therapists often find that families come to treatment seeking to “help” a struggling family member. Clinicians call this person the “identified patient.” Their suffering behavior is not the actual problem. Usually, there is a deeper abuse of power, boundary violation, trauma that is being consciously and unconsciously avoided within the family. Unwittingly, and often in great pain, that struggling family member is bearing witness.

The innocent, marginalized people that continue to die in horrific ways reflect a continuing, horrific refusal to account for deeper problems. They — and the shooters — are the identified patients. What inner collective situation is being lived out again and again in the death of black and brown people at Wal Mart and Tops Grocery, elementary school children in Uvalde and Newtown, people worshipping in Pittsburgh, Charleston, Sutherland Springs? What powers are served by continuing to hide that inner situation?

These are questions that have to be asked collectively, with rigor and consequence. What is real is that ours is the only country facing this problem on this scale. We have more guns than people in this country. What larger forces need us to have instantaneous access to weapons of mass killing? What powers does it serve? And for what inner situations is it compensating?

In three hours, I’ll walk with my son back to his middle school, where he’ll receive a new belt in karate. He’s almost a black belt in Krav Maga, too - that’s how we spend most Saturdays. He’s a sweet, loving child. He’s never been in a fight. And he is intuitively, unconsciously preparing to defend himself. Why? What unaddressed fate awaits him? What failure of parenting and citizenship will he be forced to bear?

 

Sean Fitzpatrick
Executive Director

Share

Recent Posts

A close up of a painting of a blue and purple landscape
By Brooke Summers-Perry August 8, 2025
If life’s challenges hold opportunities for our growth and transformation, how can we suspend ourselves courageously in a moment and lean into the unknown?
A painting with a swirl in the middle of it
By Sean Fitzpatrick July 28, 2025
The value of being forced to slow down
A row of trees with green ribbons tied around them.
By John Price July 11, 2025
Dear Friends, I often find myself contemplating the absence of ritual and rites of passage in our culture—those thresholds that mark our movement through life with meaning. One of the most enduring rites we still collectively honor is summer camp. I spent seven summers at Camp Longhorn, and my wife spent eleven at Camp Mystic. Just one week before the flood devastated our beloved Hill Country, we picked up our daughter from her first summer at Camp Mystic. Camp is more than a childhood tradition—it’s a sacred rhythm. It teaches children how to separate, struggle, return, and reconnect. And as we all now know, that rhythm was violently interrupted this summer. We now sit in grief—painfully and prayerfully—with all the families affected. As a psychotherapist, I meet with many people each week, and I don’t know anyone—personally or professionally—who hasn’t been touched by this disaster. The full scope of devastation has yet to reveal itself. There are communities still beginning to understand what has been lost. Whether you’ve been directly affected or are holding space for someone who has, this is a moment that calls us to come together—healing through connection. Texas is in pain—and we must remember that we do not heal alone. In times of disaster, our most powerful medicine is connection. Whether you’ve lost everything or are bearing witness, this is a moment to lean into relationship. At The Jung Center, we have long understood that the way we navigate suffering depends on the depth and quality of the relationships we carry—including the relationship with ourselves. Grief moves through us all—sometimes loudly, sometimes in silence—and these moments of rupture are also invitations to come together. To listen. To offer. To receive. Whether you’re the one being held or the one doing the holding, remember: we heal together. With deep care and connection, John Price President, The Jung Center of Houston If you are looking for connection and community, consider joining us for our weekly Power of Community online meditations on Tuesdays and Thursdays ( https://junghouston.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/junghouston/event.jsp?event=12358 ) or our online Meditacion en Español on August 6 ( https://junghouston.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/junghouston/event.jsp?event=12363 ). Or consult our events calendar ( https://www.junghouston.org/events ) for a continually updated roster of classes and events. Additionally, The Jung Center's Mind Body Spirit Institute offers essays, podcasts and interviews, and a variety of guided meditations - all free - on Substack https://themindbodyspiritinstitute.substack.com/ . If you would like to give to the affected communities and families, you can do so through the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country https://cftexashillcountry.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=4201 , or you can give to the Institute for Spirituality and Health’s Greater Houston Healing Collaborative https://www.paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=Q8KZJT2Y8WREJ .
Show More