He'd been through it during the Holocaust. He'd seen family members killed, been beaten, seen corpses stacked on the way to the crematorium ... All by the tender age of nine.

He kept it all to himself ... For almost 60 years. Never even shared with his wife or kids.  And now, at 80, he has written a book and is speaking at schools all over the country.

This story resonated with me.  African Americans seldom give voice to the pain, damage, trauma and intergenerational trauma of those violent and terrifying centuries of our history.  Why don't we recount and revisit?  Reflect, express and heal?

This man ... Tomi Reichenthal ... tries to explain.  "It's not that I didn't want to speak about it before.  It's just that I couldn't.  There are thousands like me.  I believe it's nature's way of allowing people to deal with things."

That's as good a reason as any I've heard ... Especially since DENIAL is what I generally hear when I ask. A big, thick, brick, angry wall of denial.  "We are fine!  No self-hatred here.  No damage.  No healing necessary. They're the ones who gotta learn.  I am just fine."

We can't talk about it all yet.  We can't dig around in the pain and fear and sadness. Maybe that's just nature's way.

He was an expert on child's play ... A developmental psychologist who spent his career studying play.

He abhorred the abolishing of recess ... And the advent of helicopter parents.

"Games are rites of passage," he said.  "The player performs a task, gains acceptance of his comrades and experiences success.  It's playing out an analogy of life."

Remembering double dutch, tag and ringalevio ... I have to completely agree.