Not everybody is unhealthy — some are very pro-active about the state of their bodies — but too many of us have just let things ride. That permits our inaction plus the actions of others to determine a sad destiny. Why not take steps to determine our health?
When we don’t act in the interests of bodily health — and emotional, mental, spiritual health as well — other factors will determine it for us, and we’ll be feeding the agendas of those who are influencing, shaping, driving modern western life.
I think that what is most responsible is TIME. We’re all subject to it, and we tend to bow to its pressures. Those whose jobs appear to require long hours and quick responses to time-sensitive issues are most vulnerable — as are others in those households, or those who live in big-city bustle. We fasten on the NOW and its demands, and so much is so short-term that skills requiring years of application to study or practice don’t appeal to today’s children when there are quicker ways or less demanding skills.
The pressure of Time brings in CONVENIENCE. And so we dine hurriedly on fast foods or from processed packages from the supermarket, rather than grow our own food and eat mindfully in a way that permits digestion to begin as and where intended. We text rather than visit; research and order online; possess so many appliances that we probably don’t realise the degree of electromagnetic frequencies that invade our home, even the sleeping areas. Then when we do get sick, we want from our doctors a fast ‘fix’ to manage the symptoms and don’t always want to hear whatever practical advice he might share. While it may not heal what’s behind the symptoms, a prescription gives us our money’s worth — so we think — and makes it easier to function under today’s pressures.
So we have a DECLINE IN THE REMNANTS OF THE PAST: home gardening and small agriculture where produce is not picked until ripe and it bears all the goodness; the quality of the soil growing that food, if never left fallow is declining in quality and is now doused with chemicals for greater yield; self-sufficiency becomes less possible as governments reserve to themselves the right to grow a nation’s food and remove any control we have over the conditions under which it is grown.
Intellectual decline is apparent, too. We talk of the ‘dumbing down’, as exhibited when grammar and the purity of language is lost. In recent years we’ve seen words with long-standing meaning seized upon and given a different meaning (if not intentionally, then perhaps in error by a celebrity, then copied by the masses). Often these new meanings become socially or politically mandatory. As previously mentioned, disciplines requiring years of practice have suffered, replaced by the Quick and the Slick.
Moral landslide has resulted from declining belief in a God who has provided for us and to whom we are answerable. It’s not all bad news — although church attendance has declined, there are smaller groups finding ways to worship that are more personal.
Perhaps because of the Time it would take, the ability to think for oneself has given way to the dictates of the Herd. So many of us are too busy to reason for ourselves, access knowledge, question what is offered, look at motives and assess the result. While most “go with the flow”, glad to say there are those who have done their own research and find ways to inform and warn others.
We are unhealthy because of WHAT RULES US and because of PROFIT MOTIVE… these aspects I’ll cover in Past #2 of this blog, coming tomorrow. How about you add your own COMMENTS below and add to the ideas? Or disagree!
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