Thursday, December 20, 2012

It's the end of the world as we know it...


REM was ahead of their time with this hit. Two perspectives have crossed my path recently. One is the article entitled I am Adam Lanza's Psychiatrist. The other is my father. In the former the author pleads with us to reconsider our view on mental health, and essentially each other. In the latter, my father discusses how his was a generation which lives, and has acted, in fear.

It's true mental health needs a new look. Despite the fact the nation/world has softened it's view on the field to believe it is no longer quack medicine, the concept that this is as essential as medical care is not spreading quickly enough. Cases in point: Newtown, Colorado Springs, and the innumerable amount of daily suicides which go unmentioned on the daily news (It turns out violence against self far outnumbers violence against others, showing we are more considerate of others lives than our own. But save that for another blog. Got to keep you reading). The bottom line is, we have to stop thinking of ourselves as islands. The lines between our mental health and "it's not my problem" is blurred. We should change how think and act accordingly.

The conversation with my father allowed me new understanding. He never hid from me what it was like to grow up in the shadow of the Vietnam War. The enemy, like the above mentioned line, was somewhat blurry. Sure you were told it was oppression and violation of human rights which were the enemy. But the end result seemed different. Any hippie will tell you that. My father also talked about being raised by parents who'd lived through major wars, watching an unthinkable number of the world' population die violently and mercilessly. Fear of this ambiguous violent death must be paralyzing. It floats in your life, everyday, threatening. It's something I've never known. And when I look at my parent's generation, I begin to see why grandparents, politicians, and judges in that age group still seem to make decisions based on fear. Fear of the unknown beast: of manipulation, being made a fool of, or even death.

And I believe this is where the two perspectives cross. Tomorrow is 12/21. The Mayan calendar ends. Some say it will be the end of the world. Others say it is the end of one cosmic cycle so that the new may begin. I'd rather think its the latter, The world has already changed so much in the last 100 years. We can only narrowly point to some nations and say "they are the enemy." It becomes more obvious how the fate of our "enemies" ends up being the fate of us all. The enemy we wall agree on is terrorism (notice the base word terror). It is no longer a war between things, but a war within things. And it seems we learning how to even combat this. The only way a terrorist wins is through fear. The more articles I read, the less I see us demonizing and the more we seem to try and understand. We seem to be looking inside ourselves and conquering the fear to face a strange, changing world bravely. I'm hoping tomorrow is our big arrival as a species and a planet. I have really high hopes for us.

But just in case I'm kissing my wife and daughter extra today.

What are your thoughts? What are some nagging or even paralyzing fears you'd like to let go of tomorrow?