Beth Pratt: Pursuing peace of mind
Peace of mind grows more difficult to achieve in the age of instant information because the traditional “influencers” have lost their place in dissemination of information.
We live in an age when misinformation is not only a possibility, but disinformation becomes a science. In itself, that is not new. However, the speed of communication is not only astounding, but fraught with the danger of overreaction.
Recently, a teacher’s union leader shouted to her audience, “I want more things,” continuing for several minutes to repeat to her audience “I want more “things.” It wasn’t clear what “things” she had in mind, but perhaps she had already spoken to that need.
At least, she was telling the truth of our materialistic age in which we all seem bent on material benefit for ourselves rather than concern for preparing our children to confront the reality of life’s benefits and sorrows.
We have bent truth entirely out of shape by claims such as if we don’t “like” the body we are born with, we can change our male or female birth reality via surgery and medications to adjust hormonal status. It appears to me that this is a complex brain problem rather than body failure. I’ve known enough people dealing with this issue to realize it is a painful self-image problem centered in the brain rather than the body.
People are born with brain and body imperfections that pose a difficult problem when different from the “norm.” But at some point, we learn how to operate within the family of birth and at large.
Just watch as young children play, and see the behavioral issues involved asserting dominance one over the other. The toddlers have individual ways of coping – some are aggressive and some quickly find peaceful ways to cope with the challenge. Parenting is a key element in the progression of adjustment even as personality asserts itself in how children cope with the challenges of life.
If it is true that the quality of family is the key ingredient in whether a child succeeds or fails in adapting to life outside the family, then it is also true that public education plays a huge role in how our children learn to thrive in a challenging environment.
It seems the most common goal in today’s materialistic climate is certainly reflected in that union leader’s cry of wanting “more things.”
Is she concerned for tools to bring about better education and circumstances, so children are prepared to cope with whatever life deals them? There’s always room for improvement, so I’ll not prejudge.
Issues of home and parenting sometimes make it almost impossible for a child to learn. It is not an easy task to overcome an environment that is not encouraged at home because success in school is ideally a team process.
I can count 14 family members – men and women who were grandparent, aunts, uncle, cousins and daughter-in-law – who were or are career schoolteachers. It is not an easy task. I also know, their lives were and are enriched by the experience. If great wealth is your aim, it’s probably not the best profession to pursue.
Looking through my high school annuals recently, I recall those teachers with great appreciation for their patience and sensitivity to students. Although I know all of them would have appreciated higher salaries, I can’t imagine any of them wailing over and over from a public platform, “I want more things.”
However the woman meant the phrase, it represents an extreme materialistic attitude with the populace in general. We all “want” more than we have, it seems. The only person I know who was never afflicted with a “more things” focus was also the most contented person I’ve ever known – my father. He was content and grateful for enough, the essentials of life.
The biggest purchase (outside farm needs) he ever made was a piano, so I could take lessons. He knew the church would need a pianist because teachers in small country schools usually moved frequently to find a higher salary. He was correct, the family moved away, and I was church pianist throughout my high school years – not a gifted musician, but adequate for our needs.
Sometimes, I’m asked where I got my knowledge of theology, and I have two answers: listening to my father from the time I was toddler, and from those wonderful old hymns. As much or more than the church, I was the one who benefitted by those four years at the piano.
I wonder if there are those opportunities for today’s children to participate in worship or regularly attend worship services as a family. Chaos in the schools may well reflect a growing neglect of spiritual and religious traditions in families.
It’s not more “material things,” we need, but more connection with our Creator. It’s faith our children need for life’s journey, not more “things.” Check where we spend most of our time and treasure, and I think we will know how to make some corrections.
Beth Pratt retired as religion editor from the Avalanche-Journal after 25 years. You can email her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Beth Pratt: Pursuing peace of mind