I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside. Give them a sense of pride to make it easier. Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be….
The Greatest Love of All, sung by Whitney Houston.
Her voice may have opened the door for her, but it is that song that thrust her into overnight stardom and made her the superstar she eventually became. Ironically, the latter half of her life became the polar opposite of those words and left her a crushed spirit, unable to love herself enough to withstand the pressures of self-destruction. The death of Whitney Houston has once again thrown the spotlight on the myth that a life of vanity and self-indulgent consumption can deliver happiness, or that when it finally fails the broken spirit left behind can be medicated by either legal or illegal mind-altering drugs or alcohol. The truth of the matter is that the deepest needs of a human being cannot be medicated away; human beings, people, need love, acceptance, intimacy and a feeling of belonging as much as air, water and food to develop, regardless of how unfashionable and contradictory that statement may sound in this made-up marketed world of raunchy, grungy, meaningless sex and the orgy of self-indulgence.
The red carpet lifestyle, the celebration of all things young and beautiful, and the marginalisation of all things ‘not’ that is being sold to our people are leaving them confused and self-loathing if for some reason their lives and worlds fail to deliver. Many end up spending their adult lives trying to get strangers to fill the needs that family and community used to, and turn to zany self-help theories and half-baked ideas and suggestions to raise their children out of ignorance instead of raising them in the love, care and guidance of a family.
Our society is now at the cusp of a complete breakdown because we bought the lie wholesale and sprung for all of the attachments as well. Our young girls have their self worth so skewed by the idea that they are life support systems for their genitalia that they’re sweating it out in the gyms to package and present their ‘wares’ from as early as 12 and 13; posing nude or semi-nude in their online bios and in their dress choices so as to be chosen for mating and discarding, as if that is the best use of a woman or a person on the whole. Our young males are told that emotions are taboo and to express them is wrong so they hide their feelings and behave like pack animals instead of sensitive, caring souls. They are told that they are made ‘more man’ by conquests, so they live a life of gathering and consuming with no real purpose for their existence, yet we wonder at some of the choices they then make.
The modern-day manmade dilemma of depression that is caused either by the abandonment or outright abuse of our children when they are at their most vulnerable can only be turned around through deep self-examination and acceptance in a healthy, loving environment and by a life of purpose and of service to others, not by drugs. Our women are genetically programmed to a life of purpose, our men to provision for and the protecting of something of value and we need to return to a place where they can be whole, where they could reconcile their feeling with their public image.
The disconnect between the generations is being further amplified to prevent children from seeking and taking advice from their elders in order to isolate them into soft targets, consumers and posers. The biggest problem with this model, though, is that the ‘leaders’ of this new order, the shiny, happy people of today, the purveyors of the illusion fade from popularity and relevance long before the consequences of the lie, the empty existence and the loveless life that comes with it could warn their followers away, like the Marlboro man who died quietly from lung cancer.
The wake up call when it comes will be people with enough vision to recognise the signs and symptoms of brokenness, and leaders capable of warding off the potential social collapse. We need to re-empower the family, the community and the tribe again, return to a world where our heroes are those who have suffered and triumphed life’s vicissitudes, not the illusion of ripped abs and fake breasts hiding dysfunctional minds and broken spirits behind a life of flash and no substance. We need teachers who love children, who chose the profession out of the desire to mould and develop healthy young minds in a world of immense possibilities and dreams. We need to put back the structures of a healthy society into place, that encourages family life rather than its destruction; that rebuilds our nation into a place where it is safe and beautiful to be a child, and where it is healthy and possible to grow up and become an adult. We need to love each other, take care of each other, and to treasure and grow our communities into spaces of human development and care once again, so as to have somewhere to retreat to when times get dark and we need the trust and support only loved ones can give. Our children need positive role models and messages of hope and self-belief from their parents and family to launch them into life. More than food sometimes, the right words, being there for them is all it takes to make a difference between a life of well-adjusted happiness and a lifetime of misery trying to find meaning everywhere else.
…..The greatest love of all is easy to achieve, learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all….
Phillip Edward Alexander
