THE HUMAN SIDE
How do we keep our minds healthy in light of all the disturbing events in our world? How do we successfully deal with senseless crimes, starving children, devastating hurricanes, forest fires, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions?
Some suggest we turn off the news totally or at least periodically. This is true. Whenever travel and intense work cuts into my daily routine of watching the news, it is often a welcomed relief from the bombardment of disturbing events.
But is it realistic to follow this practice? You can’t escape the realities of life for any length of time. If you do succeed, you may end up with undesirable withdrawal symptoms. News is a stimulant like drinking coffee that is a part of life’s daily routines.
Instead of trying to run from disturbing news, another option is possible: Go on the offense and counter it with wisdom.
St. Thomas Aquinas states that wisdom “considers the highest cause. By means of that cause, we are able to form a most certain judgment about other causes,” and that should set all things in order.
Here, St. Thomas would ask, what, for example, is the highest cause of our horror when seeing starving children in Yemen? Is it watching helpless, innocent children suffer? Is it abhorrence of the senseless brutality of war? Is it disgust with corrupt governments? Is it wondering how God could allow this to happen? Is one particular cause more than others at the bottom of our abhorrence?
Perhaps we can’t find the best answer. Wisdom would say it is not obtaining the ultimate answer that counts most; it is our desire to learn more fully how to restore order. Instead of letting our mind go into a tailspin, take control of it to find better means for ultimately restoring God’s order.
St. Thomas points out that the gift of wisdom is a remedy against folly. The word “folly” in Latin is “stultitia,” which translates as stupor and dullness of mind. When our mind goes dull, it loses its taste for restoring order because it has abandoned our God-given thinking powers.
The best defense is a good offense, which in our challenging times is embracing the virtue of wisdom.
