There are many of us who can still remember the days of old-fashioned store clerks who assisted customers in finding whatever they were looking for–and in the desired size, brand, shape or quantity, replaced today by mere cashiers only. Some may even also remember filling stations with attendants who pumped the gas for the customers, male and female alike. I remember driving to those who continued the practice as long as possible, declaring, “I refuse to pump my own gas and pay for it too.” Needless to say, I soon learned to do it- and continue to do so today-–if I get it. That should give many (who don’t already know) a good idea of my age that my sister, who was 2-1/2 years older than I, would always forbid me to tell because everyone who knew us was aware of the fact.
There were also doctors then who not only provided conscientious personal professional care, they also made house calls! (How old did I tell you I was?) Today’s healthcare providers know us only by our Social Security and other insurance card numbers. Most detrimental of all, however is the absence of seniors within today’s homes, especially with the increasingly younger age of the parents. Children from birth too soon become the things you must get out for school or before going to work and senior citizens are who we visit in retirement homes-–when we have the time. In former times our movements and actions were motivated and governed by thermometers that can be better controlled today by setting physical, societal and especially spiritual thermostats.
For entertainment we turn to the increasing choices of social media becoming more uncontrollable with time and technology. I’m beginning to get new meaning of the old cliché’ “The best defense is a good offense” as much of what is coming through today’s unbridled social media can be offensive! This results primarily through our physical, scientific and technological maturity-–and spiritual infancy. The physical infant can thrive on nothing but milk for the first several weeks of its life. But if it continues that diet throughout life it will grow progressively weaker until arriving at an early state of death.
Mankind likewise in its infancy was able to survive on a spiritual diet peculiar to its time which, left unchanged as mankind matures, is producing a sick, deformed society approaching a state of spiritual death. Such prolonged state is now fast reaping a harvest of social, religious, political and scientific robots with near perfect mechanical minds and bodies–with no heart, soul or conscience.
As actions and attitudes are highly contagious, we must dare to be different enough to become thermostats who set the moral and spiritual temperatures within our homes, workplaces and communities instead of remaining mere thermometers registering, mimicking or simply acquiescing to the societal climate about us. Along with verbally denouncing injustices, dare to demonstrate with dignity, individually and collectively, the model we wish to see in others.
“At best it is this,” we read in the Baha’i Holy Writings. “Some do not know; they must be taught to love their fellowman and encouraged in the acquisition of virtues. Some are ailing, their moral condition is unhealthy. They must be treated until their morals are purified. But the sick are not to be hated because they are sick, the child must not be shunned because he is a child, the ignorant should not be despised because they lack knowledge. They must all be treated, educated and assisted in LOVE.” (Investigate! 1-800-22UNITE)
