Mother/Mothering Trauma

By Atom Bergstrom

Atom’s Blog

Ann (not her real name) wanted a baby but couldn’t get pregnant.

She thought of the color GRAY, a classic mother/mothering trauma.

Ann’s RIGHT leg reacted when she mentioned her sister.

Her sister had a baby and Ann didn’t want to be left behind.

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Pursuing her inability to get pregnant, her LEFT leg also reacted.

Ann’s husband was pressuring her to have a baby.

He had rushed her into marriage by aggressively courting her.

Ann was a chiropractor, and he actually rented a billboard across the street from her office, proclaiming …

“Ann, will you please marry me?”

She asked my friend Sarita what she should do.

“Say you’ll marry him if he buys you a house,” was her answer.

Ann asked, he bought the house, and they married.

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Ann’s Hollywood office was mostly GRAY, a birth control color.

“I bet you even have a gray car,” I joked.

“No, it’s blue.”

BLUE is a color of rejection, sometimes as far as the ultimate rejection — abortion.

Ann’s car turned out to be blue-gray with a gray interior.

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Ann reconsidered her pregnancy.

She was divorced shortly thereafter.

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