The word “trauma” comes from the Greek, meaning “wound”; it’s related to tetrainein, meaning “to pierce.” In Biblical Greek the word is τραu1fe6μα, related to a word also meaning “to break in pieces, shatter, smite through.”
These etymological origins hint at what separates a traumatic injury from the regular slings and arrows of life. Trauma isn’t just surface-level damage, but a wound that pierces through, that breaks what was once whole into pieces. These surface-level wounds, while excruciatingly painful in the moment, ultimately show themselves to be mere setbacks: after an injury on the field, a period of rehab and a tour through the minor leagues on the way back to the bigs; after the job is lost, a flurry of cover letters and, eventually, hopefully, interviews and a new position; after a relationship ends, a period of sweatpants and staying in on Friday nights listening to sad music and accidentally making too much coffee in the morning for a while, until one morning you don’t, and make just the amount you need.