“Acid does more damage to the vessel in which it is stored than to the objects on which it is poured.”
How frequently have I editorially repeated this little but powerful adage that may be overdue as a reminder when observing the frequency of recent occurrences in the news that may be attributed to the mental and psychological breakdowns that result from harboring such accumulative acids.
Among them we find such corrosive agents as hate, fear, resentment, envy, greed, jealousy and (a sleeper) alienation–from parents and/or peers, especially in today’s “every man, woman and child for themselves” selfish, “free society.” However such poison perpetually contaminates the vessel in which it is stored while seldom, if ever actually poured on intended objects, often totally unaware that the situation even exists.
Another sleeper in the vessel is meddling, defined by Webster as, “to interest oneself in what is not one’s concern;” or “to interfere without right or propriety.” So detrimental are the effects of this one that it is especially addressed in one of the Baha’i morning prayers: “Strengthen my hand, O my God, that it may take hold of Thy Book with such steadfastness that the hosts of the world shall have no power over it. Guard it then from meddling with whatsoever doth not belong unto it…” Again, the vessel of the meddler is being perpetually corroded while those on whom the acid is sporadically splashed may experience some detriment, little or no damage from it.
The most self-destructive of them all must certainly be prejudice that comes in so many forms and under so many guises that it affects the entire human race throughout this planet! Among its many definitions my favorite remains one that is not found in Webster: “Prejudice is an emotional commitment to a falsehood that no amount of evidence will alter.”
We are reminded in the Baha’i Holy Scriptures that all of the wars and bloodshed in human history have been (and continue to be) caused by one form of prejudice or another whether religious, political, national, racial, tribal, or territorial where people continue to fight through the centuries over land that does not belong to any of us. We are all simply passing over it, having derived from it to ultimately return to it at some time in some form!
In this comparatively new American nation, only a few hundred years old as opposed to others thousands of years our superior, we are distinguished only by our multiplicity of prejudices and freedom to politically institutionalize them. Blinded by such multiple prejudices we fail to see the detriment in weakening links of the chain designed to serve as a model for other nations, as “No chain can be stronger than its weakest link!”
We have but to look about us to realize we can no longer afford to continue replacing the “P” in prejudice with the word pride when the only difference between the two is who has it–if it’s yours its Prejudice; if it’s mine it’s Pride.
My attention was peaked by a recent article in our daily paper with the caption, “Children are the biggest liars.” There was also a sub heading inferring that it is up to parents to teach them not to lie. Who do you think taught them to lie in the first place with Santa’s coming down chimneys; tooth fairies replacing first teeth under pillars with money–and the list goes on and on.
Let us simply be reminded in this “New Day of God,” that if children are to be taught truth not lies. “All the virtues must be taught the entire family,” according to the Baha’i scriptures. “The injury of one shall be the injury of all; the comfort of each, the comfort of all; the honor of one, the honor of all.”
Let us also consider the different connotation of the word “family” that once implied one’s immediate surroundings. With the quantum leaps in science and technology over recent decades, however, the extended connotation to “the family of man” is becoming more apparent. Also along with it that, “The world indeed has become too small for anything but peace, and far too dangerous for anything but brotherhood!”
