Every time I return to the United States of America, I feel like a prisoner or an animal in a cage that is being watched and monitored. It is an apparent “new normal” of today’s world. If it is not some legitimate authorities doing something, it is some private initiatives doing something. In the last two decades, the world has lost important gains of civilization. Aspects of good and normal living such as privacy, security, freedom, choice, and relaxation have been literally obliterated here and there. Perhaps there is a new psychology of man. Is the new man: walking looking over his shoulders, fearing every neighbor, filled with bottled up passions and emotionally explosive, carrying around all the protective gadgets he can carry, not living his own life andstuck in preoccupation with real and perceived enemies? If we could find a “psychometer” or invent one, we would probably be appalled by the measurements coming out of it.The world is not short of mental problems and is in need of improved mental health.
Religion or man’s use of religion is often the driving force of some evil in the world. From some religious mindsets, paradigms, stereotypes, fixations, obsessions, delusions, confusions, possessions, convictions, etc., come justification to render evil to other persons and entities. No religion can point an accusing finger at another because we have all been in this together.
In a world of tensions between love and hate, freedom and fear, war and development, religion and confusion, we once again arrive at Christmas time or Yuletide, when one of the predominant religions of the world celebrates a great feast marking the birth of one man, who has, over two millennia, proven to be like no other man.
I am not a preacher of Christianity, though my life may bear witness to no other. This season is however: “joy to the world” and in that spirit, for the well-being of all, there is a factor of life and living that can be addressed for better mental health and peace and progress in our environments: gift.
If I may borrow from the Christmas story, the wise men brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the newborn. These were obviously symbolic or preparatory gifts not for immediate consumption by the newborn as would have been gifts of milk, baby soap, body oil, or even diapers. Wisdom always enables one to see beyond the immediate, the ordinary, the common, the obvious, etc., but always to see right.
Wisdom is always needed for proper gift, which every person is capable of. As I drive through the streets of Lagos and see a patch of well-designed and well-kept roadside landscaping, I think that the uneducated workers doing that landscaping have given more to neighbor or society than the highly educated engineersand administrators that failed to give us electricity. I often hear people say: “there is no money” when what it really means is “I have not earned some money by doing some good, providing some service, or making some product that people would pay me for.” We need to earn our livelihood but work and service may be too simply related to money and it is wisdom that lifts works and services away from mammon unto proper gift. What a better world we would have when every person makes of himself or herself a proper and true gift. When we render something good rather than corruption and evil, we save the world from having new cases of depression, mania, paranoia, stress, anger, hatred, bitterness, hurt, vengeance, negativity, etc.
Surely, every person has some capability or talents to upload unto a platform of productivity, peace, and progress. Surely, every person may find life in goods and services downloaded from the Common Good championed by those who practice good religion and good relationship with God and their fellow human beings.
There is no real vacuum in human living. Love gives way to hate, gift gives way to corruption, good gives way to evil, and lightgives way to darkness.Against all our lack, we are told by Christianity: “God so loved the world that He gave…” and that point in history marked a beginning of new human giving: gold – something beautiful and precious; frankincense – something dignifying and enhancing; and myrrh – something healing and preserving. Supposing we each continue this tradition of gift daily, whoever we are and whatever we do in life, where will all the mental cases then come from? What physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing would be the “new normal” of humans!
For now, we have our fancy Christmas gifts to bring some happiness here and there. Perhaps there are people who have not received a Christmas present for years or even decades. Hopefully, this Christmas will bring them a new beginning of gifts. Merry Christmas!
Dr. ‘Bola John is a biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA. For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635
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