Personal

Help!

/ Susan Scrupski / Leave a comment

beatles-help-i7607

So, I’m trying something that makes me uncomfortable. It grates on my professionally honed ego.  In short, I’m asking for help.

Ahhhh!  So horrible.

But, the grownup in me has realized that there are just some mountains I cannot climb alone.  I’m seeking help in three categories.  Two I’m willing to talk about right now, and the last I’ll reserve for a later date.

  1. Help with my business.  I (reluctantly) applied to join a social enterprise accelerator here in Central Florida.  After you’ve started a few businesses, you start to believe you know everything there is to know.  Nothing could be further from that truth.  I got word last week I was accepted into the program.  The kickoff starts today.  It’s going to be an adjustment, but I’m willing to walk into this with open eyes.
  2. Help with my big, bad self.  I’ve been seeing a therapist for a few months now.  It is also humbling to admit that I have not processed everything terrible and traumatic that happened to me… and that I need a lot of help doing that.  The therapy has had a positive impact on my everyday living and has reoriented how I think about the future.  Looking back on the past is still painful, and I know I have a long way to go to triumph over those lived experiences.

The net result of these actions is– rather than diminishing me, they’ve strengthened me.  Asking for help is not a sign of vulnerability.  It’s a sign of maturity resting on a foundation of confidence.  I’m confident I will grow and evolve to become a better version of the person I am today.

12/4 Update: You can see #3 on my Fatcinating blog.

ALERT: Community Response Required NOW

/ Susan Scrupski / Leave a comment

Last week, we finished our interviews and filming for our documentary about High Point, NC.  While we were there, a woman (and mother) was murdered by her abuser. This was the first instance of a Domestic Violence homicide in High Point where the offender had been notified, and was on the watch list.

We always knew it would happen one day. Domestic Violence is with us like a disease. There is no “cure.”  But there are steps we can take to inoculate the public against widespread serious injury and homicide.  This is what they’ve done in High Point.  This philosophy and approach is the thesis and social commentary that drives our film. Considering this is the FIRST homicide among known offenders in 5 years, the results have been impressive.  Even life-changing.

But, #EVERYDVVICTIMMATTERS.  In High Point, they recognize domestic violence is a public safety issue.  Domestic Violence (a.k.a. Intimate Partner Violence) crosses race, income, gender, geography – every known variable you can track.

The system is not perfect in High Point, but it’s the best there is that I’ve seen after nearly three years of working full-time on this horrific, devastating social epidemic.

This morning, I saw an alert that went out to the entire community:

ALERT:

“I was just asked by HPPD to rally all concerned HPCAV Associates and others who are concerned about our violence in HP to come to ElmTowers at 2pm today (7/21/17) for a Domestic Homicide Response to share with residents and our community that such violence is wrong and cannot be tolerated

…  We are saddened by such loss of life..  It is VITAL that we gather to show our care, our love, our concern and our outrage against such violence.”

– Jim Summey, High Point Community Against Violence

It takes a village to address domestic violence. Imagine if the community rallied in your town every time a woman was murdered?  I don’t mean with vigils, galas, and 5Ks.  I mean with outrage and a call for action to end the violence.  And a plan to make that happen.

Here in Central Florida, a woman (another mother) was murdered by her abuser, and it was just a blip on the nightly news.  When a cop identified the perpetrator weeks later and tried to bring him in, he shot and killed her too.

Only then, the town turned upside down in a nationally televised manhunt.

What kind of message does that send?  When will every community issue a mandate for zero tolerance for domestic violence?  I can only hope it comes sooner, rather than later. It’s unconscionable to think it may never come.

Update: 75 people showed up for this meeting. 

Memory Stick

/ Susan Scrupski / 1 Comment

liplinerEvery morning for the past 39 years, while going through the mindless routine of putting on my morning makeup, I’m jolted by a memory from my past.

Just when I’m gliding the smooth lip liner over the contour of my lips, I see it.  The memory jars me. I scowl because I think to myself, “After nearly 40 years, why do you still have this reaction?  Why are you haunted by this memory?”

There’s a distinct tear, a split, an unmistakable scar on the surface of my lip.  It represents a very dark day in my life when my incisor tooth sliced through my face and bled non-stop down my brand new suede jacket.

Screen_shot_2012-03-26_at_9I remember I paid a handsome $79 for that jacket in 1978. 

It was a foolish, indulgent purchase that I really couldn’t afford. Now ruined, I’d have to throw it away; get rid of it.

Destroy the evidence.

I had managed to get away from my abusive boyfriend.  Had been accepted to the state university. I was starting a new life.  Even met a new guy.  My life was turning around.

Until that night.

I don’t recall specifically the circumstances of how or why my abuser showed up that evening at my campus dorm.  I just remember the fateful blow.  That white light that explodes behind your eyes when you’re hit with the physics of brute force, and the delayed pain.  The blood begins before the pain.  And thinking, “God damnit, I just bought this jacket!”

Then, the tears.  And then, the shame.

In a single swift blow, a violent man forever corrupted such a mundane experience hundreds of millions of women go through every day.  For the rest of my life, I’m trapped in that memory loop.  And, as you can see, that scar is just one of many.

That one is visible.