Scattered Minds

Ahhh, Gabor Mate. There's something so comforting about him, in a way that Jewish authors can only ever fulfil. I read this in Summer 2021, and it blew my mind. It helped me understand my own behaviour, but also that of my family.
Mum had read this book 20 years ago, and she remembered this line in the book about how a doctor, operating during WW2, said “all of my Jewish babies are crying right now.” This made me realise the impact of stress on babies - how they pick up, almost via this osmosis like process, or the stress of their parents. Mum said it made her think of the contrast of Babushka's sister (born pre WW2) and the anxiety that paralysed Babushka (born during 1941). It's weird that babushka, rather than her sister, came out more traumatised, as her elder sister surely would have been more cognitive and aware of the horrors surrounding her, right? But no, not at all. And with this knowledge in mind, it makes me think of my own mother, who was just 23, who barely spoke English, scared and traumatised in a new country... and so much more of my own childhood makes sense.