|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
“Does anyone know where the soul of man goes
When his words lose their magic and meaning?”
Those are the opening words of a poem written by a father who lost his son to an accidental suicide.
I attended the film ”I Can’t Look Away: The Case Against Social Media,” at the Keith Middle School on Oct. 23. Rev. David Lima, chair of the New Bedford Suicide Prevention Coalition, invited me.
I trembled for over an hour after the film ended.
It will be shown again, starting at 6 p.m. on Nov. 6 at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School. I urge all citizens and all who represent us to attend.
Then ask yourself, “Do I sense a longing for a lost wholeness that somehow feels like a memory?”
At mid-life I had a massive emotional breakdown. Years of therapy would ultimately help me process childhood fears that would not let me begin again.
Still, at almost 80, when I think of my mother’s screaming, an aching pain between my shoulder blades arises. When I first identified it, my therapist said, “Oh! About where Atlas carried the weight of the world, huh?”
The portrait of a wise old man and a question I had learned to ask myself were essential to my recovery. The question was, “Does your path have a heart?” We owe our children words and worlds with magic and meaning, and the possibilities of a path with a heart.
The man who was my therapist, and who would not allow me to perish, left me with some of his wisdom.
“It is the poet’s job to defend the language because when words lose their meaning, men become violent.”
We live in a time where, for over a century, unrepentant capitalism and the fusion of science and technology have turned our world into a place that no longer feels like a safe home. Science without humility will not provide for us, technology without wisdom will not improve our quality of life, and reason without empathy and compassion will not govern us or redeem us.
I write, thinking of Jefferson and Emerson.
From Jefferson’s “Letters”: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be …”
And from Emerson’s “The American Scholar”: “The one thing in the world of value, is the active soul.”
See the film, tremble, and give our children words of magic and meaning, an education in which they can trust and governance in which they can hope.
Craig Lindell is a resident of South Dartmouth
Mr. Lindell, sharing your experiences in this way is a very courageous and generous act. There are probably many others who have had similar experiences bur feel that they are alone. Knowing that others have found healing might well encourage them to seek help sooner than you did. Our culture does not encourage people, especially men, to discuss personal and emotional issues. So, it is especially important for all of us to be kind to one another. We never know what the other person is going through. If we greet people we meet while walking, we might be the only person who smiles at them and acknowledges them as fellow humans. We are all on this journey through life together.