“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, sothat justice is perverted.
— The Prophet Habakkuk
Medical science tells us that: “The body’s stress response system is usually self-limiting. Once a perceived threat has passed, hormones return to typical levels. As adrenaline and cortisol levels drop, your heart rate and blood pressure return to typical levels. Other systems go back to their regular activities. But when stressors are always present and you always feel under attack, that fight-or-flight reaction stays turned on. The long-term activation of the stress response system and too much exposure to cortisol and other stress hormones can disrupt almost all the body’s processes.
This puts you at higher risk of many health problems, including:
•Anxiety
•Depression.
•Digestive problems.
•Headaches.
•Muscle tension and pain.
• Heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke.
•Sleep problems.
• Weight gain.
• Problems with memory and focus.
That’s why it’s so important to learn healthy ways to cope with your life stressors.”
Given all that is going on in America today, and in light of what medical science tells us, I have decided to reclaim as much of my time and as much of my attention from the daily fare that is served to the public by the news-media here in the United States, as much as is humanly possible. And so, although I will not be able to escape what is reported, completely, as “BREAKING NEWS!”, I do have the power to control and to reduce my intake levels.
There is, always, something that is newsworthy — sometimes records of triumph and at other times records of tragedy, but newsworthy nonetheless. America is not the world, and the world is not America. And, there is, indeed, life beyond the news, of life that is beyond the interest of the news, with the ratings and the profit margins that it generates for the purveyors of news taking precedence. The newscasters have taken the bait — especially those with their roots deep in the corporate world — and they have allowed one individual to turn the broadcast industry into an inane, into an insane and into a mundane reality television circus, with an audience of one.
But, what about me and what about the countless others who do not want to be pigeonholed into one way of seeing the world that we live in, and to suffer the biased interpretations of that which is reported? These concerns are not new and they predate my life and my participation in this country. And, so, I have decided to reclaim my time and my attention, and have other matters inform what I write — if I choose much longer to comment on life as it manifests itself around us. And, if I continue to pen opinion pieces what form would they likely take? At this point in time I do not know, but it will, most certainly, not be about what is currently tearing this country apart.
There are many individuals and groups of individuals who have given their voices to patriotic protest — but, as for me, I will limit myself to the task to which I was assigned, which is to, simply, pray for the foundations of this country. It is a mandate that I believe is no less than what many in the American populace are doing in our streets and in our courtrooms. And, to be honest, I believe it is more fundamental than anything else that is being done to safeguard the republic. And as I have been saying repeatedly, that only God can save us — only He can deliver us.
My mandate is not only foundational to the success which is being sought to keep, as it were, the HMS Titanic from sinking after it was intentionally made to hit the existential iceberg not too long ago, but it was prescient. Before the news media and social prognosticators began sounding the alarm, I was warned and I was instructed as to what my role should be in all of this. I need to redeem my time in order to pray more and to study more. But, there are those who will still expect me to write something from time to time. And, if I continue to do so, about what shall I write?
Perhaps I will report about the knock on my door which I heard, one morning, from the elderly son of one of my neighbours, the son of a dear lady who is over 100 years old, who had fallen and needed help in getting her up. I was able to help, and I am glad to report that she was unhurt. Perhaps I will report on a friend texting me to ask not to wake her or her mother up in the wee hours of the morning with new written and freshly published ideas sent out sometimes at my witching hours. Perhaps I will report on a call which I had received from one who is as a daughter to me, who is currently oversees on a sabbatical, just to get my advice on a certain matter.
Perhaps I will report on calls made to and received from my brother about a project that he is working on at his house or on behalf of a family member or on behalf of a friend who needed his incredible expertise. Perhaps I will report on my wife commanding me, with pointed finger, to stop typing and to drink the porridge which she had to reheat when I was indisposed in the bathroom. Perhaps I will report on a book that was sent to me by an old friend, a memoir of one of our presidents, which she had seen and had purchased with me in mind. Perhaps I will report on the baptism of the daughter of a friend that I watched online, and of the great celebration surrounding it, or on the passing of the father of a friend who was a stalwart in the Jamaican publishing industry.
What do I write about? There is so much to write about. And, so, until the ideas come — Mister Speaker, I now reclaim my time.
