Shock Therapy

The following is an excerpt from Part One:

Paramount to the adjusting process is the foreboding feeling of displacement. None can avert its pernicious shadow. It pervades the murky, aggrieved climate of prison habitation. Adjustment is a vast undertaking. Yanked into this alien world, accosted by culture shock at its most extreme intensity, I have no alternative but to relinquish to its grip.

I can identify with circumstances in Outlander, a fascinating novel by Diana Gabaldon. The main character is a post World War II combat nurse. She unwittingly stumbles into a time warp, through a stone circle in the British Isles. Hurled back in time, she is shocked to find herself in the same location, but two centuries removed. Her life takes on a different dimension.

Demolition of life as I know it derives from being hurled not through time zones, but into foreign territory, a wretched chasm. Those consumed by it fall prey to whims, inconsistencies, and abuses which pathetically serve as barometers of normalcy. No boundaries are sacred.