Editor: Whitworth’s commentary
“If winter comes can spring be far behind” is the age-old familiar quote from Percy Bysshe Shelley. Yet it is amazing how the Roanoke Valley and this entire section of the nation have escaped the wintry grip of ice and snow that continues to blanket other areas both north and south of us. Don’t know if the robin, considered to be “the harbinger of spring” has anything to do with it or not but coming out of my back door a week or more ago I was astounded to find a flock of robins nestled on the ground with some fluttering in an accumulation of leaves blown against the side of my garage beneath a spreading maple tree. Yet in the absence of ice and snow, even with the cold wintry winds that prevailed, there remained an awareness that spring was not far behind in nature’s continuous cycle.
In nature, there is no repose. All things constantly change and in so doing, move-in perfect harmony and balance–except when altered by man the only creature capable of resisting such change and altering nature, thus creating societal and spiritual imbalance and subsequent friction and turmoil. Man also is the only creation with the capability (and volition) to resent rather than appreciate differences, epitomized in nature, and therefore continues to use differences to create fear, distrust, division, and hate which feed warring mentalities. Such mentalities are indicative of the winter of men’s hearts, frozen with selfishness and greed as the warm spring of hope, love, and unity approaches–but not without a life and death struggle.
It would appear that religion is dying out throughout the land with increasing evidence of the abdication of responsibility for one’s own life and the spiritual training of those who succeed, precede and follow us. In its wake, there is developing a passive attitude towards life devoid of discipline–of self or others. Even those who say they believe in life after death, live as though they don’t, according to 60 Minute’s Andy Rooney.
The inevitable consequence is yielding to pressures and conformity to destructive patterns of behavior on all levels. Laxity in or blatant non-conformance to social, administrative, and/or spiritual laws, once enjoyed by only a privileged few, has become so commonplace today that even spiritual laws are being challenged and changed to conform to modern trends and lifestyles. Of greatest detriment is that the strong family unit that once constituted the bedrock of lifestyle in this nation has fallen prey to the present “throw-away society” that has encompassed it. To grant full self-government to any people without education who are dominated by selfish desires and are inexperienced in the conduct of personal, private, or public affairs would be disastrous. “For there is nothing more dangerous than the freedom to those who are not fit to use it wisely,” state the Baha’i Scriptures.
What a sad testimony for the young couples of today who seek to build healthy marriages and families with so few models to go by. What mixed messages do we send when we verbally espouse high morals and aspirations with no comparable demonstration. How can we display or allow our children to be otherwise subjected to lewd and disrespectful language and behavior or indulge in unwholesome habits while offering the lame excuse to children, “You’re not old enough yet.” If the behavior is inappropriate for youth, the same must also apply especially to adults.
We must dispel this incessant winter of fraud and deception, with ourselves and others, if we are to ever welcome the sweet Springtime of respect–for ourselves and posterity. We will never have to impose our high (minded) morals on others once we assume our rightful roles as models of family life, especially within each individual family that collectively constitutes the “Family of Mankind!” “One nation, under (One) God, to which there are many paths; indivisible, with liberty and justice for all!”
