Welcome & Thank You

If you’re reading this, our paths have met in some way, or you know someone who knows someone whose path has met mine—whether through family, friendship, education, coaching, writing, poetry, basketball, running, or breathing the same air on the subway or under the same sky.

From a narrow(ish) perspective I’ve spent just about every day of the last three years, and intermittent chunks of the last seven years, working on this project. From a broader perspective, I’ve spent the better part of the past four-plus decades making choices, learning, and engaging with a wonderful variety of individuals and communities in order to write this particular book the particular way that I’ve written it—although I didn’t know I was doing that amid the doing. The specifics of this book and the number of years aside, the general trajectory described in this paragraph is not unique to me or this project.

The stories I was given in the years immediately following my 1954 birth as what would today be characterized as a second-generation, New York Italian-American, Catholic, heterosexual, cisgender working-class male were given as true. A few have held up; most have not. (You’ll have to read the book for the details). Everyone receives a set of cultural givens in the early years of life. How have yours held up (to the extent you’re aware of them)?

If you have some awareness of the dignities and disasters of the United States of America in the third decade of the twenty-first century, and you’re concerned with the current trajectory of the country (as I am), Healing America’s Narratives: The Feminine, the Masculine, and Our Collective National Shadow will help you make sense of America’s current state of affairs. Seen through the lenses of history and psychology, where the country is now not only makes sense, but may have been inevitable.

To the right (or below if you’re on mobile) are some ways you can help expand the community of folks who are interested in healing America’s narratives and owning and integrating the country’s collective Shadow.

Help Expand our community

Buy the book from Amazon or Barnes & Noble (or order it from your local independent bookseller), read it, and tell others about it.

Contribute to our crowdfunding campaign: details here.

If you use social media, let others know about the book, preferably with a link to the Amazon page or this site — healingamericasnarratives.com.

Review the book—locally, on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, or any other platform that you engage.

Inform your local libraries and booksellers of the book:

• Provide them with a copy or two as a gift if you can afford to do that.
• Give them a one-page or four-page promotional PDF:

Inform local media (or national media if you have access) about the book.

Inform educators in higher and secondary education about the book, especially, but not only folks concerned with history, psychology, politics, current affairs, spirituality, and the humanities in general.

Related to the above, if you are involved with, or know someone who is involved with state or national organizations or associations like the American Psychological Association, the National Education Association, and its state affiliates, or other professional organizations that might be interested, literally, in healing America’s narratives, let them know about the book.

Photo Attribution

I’d like to thank the talented photographers whose images I’ve used throughout this website.

Black Foot, Standing Bear, Big Eagle, Sioux. Three members of the Sioux tribe pose in Indian Village, 1898 Photo by Boston Public Library on Unsplash

Rosa Parks, Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

John Lewis Mural, Photo by Robin Jonathan Deutsch on Unsplash

Angela Davis, Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

Vietnam War Memorial, Photo by Ryan Stone on Unsplash

How do our battered… pain, Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash

Half-staff American flag, Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Arlington National Cemetery, Photo by Philippa Rose-Tite on Unsplash

Davenport Iowa (flood) Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash  

For Women Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash 

Teacher for Gun reform Photo by Natalie Chaney on Unsplash

Bookstore photo by Ashley Byrd on Unsplash 

Race mixing is Communism Little Rock Arkansas 1959, Library of Congress (no credit found)

Sandy Hook Promise (my photo)