This page is provided as a single place to find the posts of @Swirlingfire
I first noticed SwirlingFire as a shout of rage in to the Twitter void. Easy to ignore as a crank and part of the rage was seemingly powered by people regarding her exactly as that.
What I recognised was words and other things that were similar to what I’d encountered with a few close friends as they went through therapy and struggled to deal with the past. I also recognised the pool of humour and intelligence behind the anger.
I claim no primacy here, no special insight that meant we found ourselves talking. As John Lydon sang “Anger is an energy”. It can be really useful when directed for a positive outcome, I’ve used it myself.
As we talked, two things struck me. Firstly, for someone so hurt she made a leap of faith to place a lot of trust in me. I know I would not have been able to do the same. The second thing was that empathy ran strongly in both directions at many levels.
Inadvertently I’d gained a friend.
To provide a space here so she could lay out her thoughts, say whatever she needed to say was a no-brainer. I’m really happy to see these posts here and that the reaction to them has been so strong and supportive.