COLUMNIST: Wit & Wisdom

We used to use the term ‘Red Indians’ – I had hoped to visit on one of my regular trips to Montreal, but the arrangements were cancelled at short notice for some reason.

I particularly wanted to meet them, for there are aspects of their culture that we might see as strange.

For example, in times of famine, when we in the so-called developed West would ensure that the children are first to be fed and kept warm.

In the Inuit tradition the mothers appear to be given priority and the youngsters get what’s left.

Selfish, we might think, but clearly they believe that if the mothers are weak and malnourished, who will look after the young ones?

And, in the harsh winter months in Alaska, Greenland and Northern Canada where they live, if there is a food shortage the old men will remove all their clothing and wander off into the blizzard, never to be seen again.

In a way it reminds me of the command given by the Master to his followers: ‘Love the Lord with all your heart, and your neighbour as yourself’.

It’s easy to miss what’s being said there: ‘love your neighbour as yourself’.

The implication is that if you don’t love yourself you will find it difficult to truly love others or, as Wayne Dyer would say, ‘You can’t give away what you don’t have.’

But when we have the assurance that we are loved by God, then loving ourselves and others comes almost naturally, provided we understand that it is not because we are good and match up to exacting standards that we are loved, rather, the message here is that we are loved by a God who is love.

In other words, love is what God is, it’s not what God does.

As a community we are going through a difficult time at the moment.

However, there are signs of a latent goodness in people that seems only to emerge in times of corporate hardship such as war or this awful pandemic.

At one level I think the virus has shaken us to our roots, partly because we have lost our freedom and partly out of fear.

But whatever, it is one of the societal changes wrought by COVID that we should all do whatever we can to ensure that it doesn’t evaporate with the morning mist when better times return.

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