Seems odd, doesn’t it? So, why is it that some people seem to think it’s alright to value one civilian child’s life against that of another, based on beliefs they’ve been fed by the media and not bothered to look into any further? Apropos of nothing.
Look at this frog in the photo. The poor sod invaded my home and, with no way out once the window was closed, was robbed of his life under a cardboard box stuffed under a bed in a room bereft of magic happenings. His near-fossilised corpse was not uncovered until a plague of bird lice (or similar, one assumes, as one is no entomologist) descended upon said bedroom (finally, some magick, albeit rather black). Did the frog really deserve being sentenced to such a bleak and merciless death, merely because he didn’t know any better than to jump through a cellar window in his desperate search for shelter from a storm? Or maybe he was hiding from his wife, I don’t know. Husbands seem to think that my house is particularly good for that. Was. I have since escaped my Fritzl-esque abode.
Apologies, yet another bee seems to have gotten itself trapped under my bonnet today. Where was I? Oh, denigrating the lives of strangers.
As I mentioned in last week’s post, World Mental Health Day is coming up and I haven’t really gotten my frustrations out of my system yet. (As if that’s ever going to happen – let’s be honest). Or, rather, I didn’t feel as if I got my point across as clearly as I’d envisioned. Now, I am not dismissing the importance of these events – without them I’m sure some people would be utterly oblivious to how much our mental health impacts our daily lives. What’s missing, though, is that it’s an aspect of our overall health, because some people seem to think that matters of the mind have been assigned its very own little branch.
Perhaps due to the minute state of their own mind, they haven’t the cognitive ability to comprehend such afflictions.
Either way, I’m not saying we should introduce World Meniscal Tear Day or International Sciatica Month (although, it would be nice if someone donated a few fistfuls of dollars to whomever is in charge of the research on how to fix those), but mental health issues really needn’t stigmatised further.
Let’s keep in mind that our health fluctuates. Some aliments are chronic, others acute, most are temporary. In most cases, life goes on. It’s not all suicides, extreme paranoia and drowning in an abyss you can’t seem to peel yourself away from. Sometimes you can remove a bit of the patella, rather than chopping the leg off altogether. There are good days as well as bad ones.
What’s more, there’s no such thing as perpetual happiness. Does that mean the opposite is true, that there’s no such thing as perpetual despair? Personally, I don’t think you could have one without the other. Of course, it’s not ideal when you only experience the extremes of either, but I think there’s something to be said for embracing all colours of the spectrum. Sort of an emotional barometer, if you will.
I’m getting away from myself again, but you get it. Let’s say someone you care about is in hospice. You wouldn’t expect them to sit there and wallow in their oftentimes excruciating pain – you’d allow them to have a laugh or crack a smile when something funny happened, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t take that as a sign that they’ve miraculously recovered, all of a sudden. Yet, if you saw someone you know with chronic depression doing the very same thing – daring to take pleasure in something so banal as a quote from, say, their favourite Leslie Nielsen movie, society/popular culture/random fantasists has taught you to suspect they’ve been faking it all along. Therein lies the stigma.
Bit of a rant today, I must admit. So, to wrap things up a bit (and maybe trying to find our way back to what drew you in in the first place), let’s get back to that price tag. What determines the value of an individual? Surely it’s their inherent qualities and not external factors beyond their control? Or, indeed, the internal factors over which they hold no power? Why do we seem to think that we are right to make any sort of assumption about a stranger’s value at all when we know nothing about them? If we’re all going to walk around pointing fingers, then what’s the point of the judicial system?
I know, a bit far-fetched towards the end there. I’m not trying to teach anyone a lesson here, I’m just airing my frustrations over our collective existence’s great injustices. I bet the wrong person reads this and ends up using it as an example of why we need to shut people like her up. Och, well. As you can clearly see, I, too, am guilty of passing judgement left and right, using other people’s past and future judgement of myself as an excuse. I reckon we can all do better.
A Roman Emperor once said that you should first turn your gaze inwards before passing judgement on another. Carl Jung famously said: “Thinking is a difficult art, therefore most people prefer to pass judgements.” John Fogerty said it better; “Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself“.
See you next Tuesday. Until then, why don’t you check out this brand spanking new EP linked below? You might know the singer.
