Wednesday, April 29, 2009

OUR HUNGER FOR HIGH!

We're a nation of rich pampered and unhappy people. Oh, we have our poor, that's true, but our "poor" is not the "poor" we find in Haiti, India or Africa. That poor is real poor.

We rich North Americans have become not only unhappy but unhealthy too.

Unhealthy? I'm not talking food or height to weight ratio here but a more accurate yet invisible standard; I'm talking pharmacy here. I'm talking pills, capsules, sprays, ointments, vitamins. There's over the counter medicine for the "do it yourself" crew and behind the counter medicine for the doctor's more "impatient patients". Pharmaceuticals; literally a ton of variety packed on a growing variety of shelving. Each little bottle jar or box offering no solution, simply a promise of symptomatic relief for pain or discomfort. Relief in a matter of minutes! Ahh ...

In my day the little old drug stores of the past were more limited. There weren't many of them in the town or city. Over the counter medicines offered little more than a bottle of aspirin and behind the counter and the man in white, were the syringes and pills. We simply took pain and discomfort as a part of life. Sounds strange doesn't it?

We got hooked on Coke ... Coca-Cola early. Our nations first true addiction.

Today we want to feel good. Our healthy and natural endorphins are no longer enough, we want to push it! This attitude makes a candidate ... for addiction.

We want a legitimate high. We expect it ... it's our right as Americans to be "happy and high". In fact what makes the whole thing so dangerous is that we, as a people, have addicted ourselves to "high and happy". We are searching for a "high and happy" that is as elusive as the treasure at the end of a beautiful rainbow.

Still, we search the shelves ... looking for high!

We have let ourselves and our children become candidates for a "high" and "happy" lifestyle that doesn't exist.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

WHEN DOES PROTECTION BECOME DANGEROUS?

We are living in a society obsessed with protection. It seems quite apparent. Safety is the big thing from schools to industry, we hear the word constantly. Safety hats, safety shoes, safety glasses to kids having to wear safety helmets, knee-pads safety belts on and on it goes penetrating every aspect of our society ... but can "protection" become dangerous? When does protection actually weaken the individual? When does well meaning, even necessary protection make us vulnerable to the realities of life? Living carefree in a beautiful protective bubble shields us from a real and dangerous world, a world of billions of tough, strong and alert people.

A thought along that line.

As a young girl my mother lived on a farm. She had opportunities to watch little chicks hatch. Oh how the chicks struggled as they slowly worked their way out of their eggshell. Her heart went out to these little struggling chicks, so small and helpless. In time emotion got the best of her. Why couldn't she help the chicks? She was strong able and willing ... so she started helping the chicks, eliminating their struggle, only to find that what she really did was to cripple many of the chicks, in fact a few died.

At her young age my kind hearted mother didn't understand what she was doing; instead of helping she actually was crippling and killing those she loved. She didn't understand that the tough eggshell and process of struggling was all part of a well laid out divine plan to strengthen the new chick and prepare him for life. The struggle was necessary. The struggle was essential ... but the struggle was hard to watch.

Like my mother, our well meaning leaders have become obsessed with eliminating the struggle in life, thus weakening and dumbing down the very individuals they are leading. No more thorns, spikes, sharp-edges. No more bare feet or painful falls: a smoothing of the path into fantasy land ... the great American bubble.

I see this thing played out with so many loving mothers and their children. Mothers innocently crippling the very kids they love simply because they aren't really thinking this thing out. Over protection of a child can only produce a weak man or woman ... and weak men and women produce a weak America.

Unfortunately, too often emotion trumps common sense to the hurt of us all. Don't over protect!