Pouring sugar into my ears

Mums in admonition

It is quite funny the kind of early Friday morning banter I have with my mum which after the greetings follows a range of questions, answers, prayers, advice, admonitions, and generalities.

At 57, I am both a child as much an adult, though, in the admonition department, it is like a tussle of wills and determination. Obviously, one of the sticking points is how to wean me off sugar and my apparent addiction to sweet and sweetened things. Much as I avoid artificial sweeteners of every sort, pure sugar that goes into confectionary and demerara sugar that I put into beverages, I cannot seem to avoid.

Then again, some years ago, I did take sugar out of my tea and as long as my latte was milky enough, I could have coffee without sugar, I have returned to my old ways, and the craving for sugar heightened by reduced sensitivity of olfactory receptors and taste buds.

Sweet to my hearing

Mother however would not hear my pleadings and even as I would hate to admit I am addicted to sugar; it is something I should work to reduce just for health’s sake. She seems to think she can apply and exert coercive pressure by twisting my ears so that they turn and burn bright red to which I retorted, sugar does not go in through the ears.

The impression I got was the flaring of my ears might well moderate my use of sugar and before I could say, Fat Chance! I could feel my ears warming up and I relented on the point of adjustment I was taking only to make coffee some two hours later with the same amount of sugar I put in the mug yesterday, which I ended up not drinking because I was invited for tea by my neighbour. It is muscle memory as it is taste bud memory.

As for my ears, spare the twisting, I can still remember the last time.

Rise with your hopes or fall with your fears

Guard your ears, till your heart

Our fears can so limit our ability to thrive, some fears fed by a passing comment in our past that takes root and grows into a humongous impediment to progress and success. The caution we must exercise in who we lend our ears to is one of eternal vigilance, for the grounds in which seeds can grow in our lives, are more fertile than we ever realise.

Words from the mouths of our parents triggering involuntary responses that determine the course of our lives and can make a difference in a lifetime, you wonder, how do you escape the clutches of what you have taken to heart? There are damaging consequences, from people of considerable influence that you can still hear their voices decades long after you have forgotten who or what they look like.

We can be different

We should not however concentrate on the negative, there are other inputs that engender the amazingly productive, that word of kindness, of encouragement, of hope, of prayer, of beauty, of praise and the good of our humanity, lighting up a path for us to travel, rescuing us from danger, infirmity, or calamity, bringing a sense of determination that girds us and strengthens us that we have no choice but to win. Those voices are begging to be heard but we are too attuned to the contrary.

As individuals, we fight our uniquely arranged battles, but when we enter into partnerships where our fortunes are pooled, we can rise with our partners or sink with them because of the baggage that burdens our inability to either live beyond our fears or the grip of the impending defeat sowed by experiences or words we have heard before.

Imagine where you can be

The greater disaster is not to see the newness in life that gives you hope against all situations to write a better story and create a worthy narrative of your life beyond the fears and low expectations of others who stole our power to thrive with their selfish perspective of what your life might be if it turned out different and successful.

If I am saddened, it is with those who never tried to dream of the extraordinary and when given the opportunity take off from the ground, rise to have the wind beneath their wings to soar with the eagles. It is possible, only if we uproot the forests of fruitless trees that took hold clouding the warmth of the sun with the fear of a future we do not know. Fears based on broad stereotypes when they should have based on the uniqueness of the individual.

Even more, the pity is you and your partner are left down in the dumps in an unproductive life just because fear robbed you of the spirit of hope and the experience of better things that you could ever have imagined in your wildest dreams.

Lazy minds and easy finds for conspiracy theorists

Another wild conspiracy shared

As I sighed, I managed a wry smile because another WhatsApp video had arrived with a title suggesting some incredible and wild conspiracy attached to the Coronavirus pandemic and I have seen quite a few.

It reminds me of a passage in the Bible, ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; ⁴ and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 New King James Version (NKJV)

If I were to attempt a paraphrase of the above passage, I would say, The pandemic has presented the opportunity for people to depart from sound reasoning, their inclinations attuned to confirmation bias, they will seek those who would help them along with fantastic conspiracy theories and incredibly unbelievable schemes.

Lazy minds are easy finds

What saddens me is many people do have the ability to reason out things if they are inquisitive, questioning and seeking the rationale around things, but are too lazy to consider that when like chicks in a nest they could be fed regurgitated worms. I have sometimes considered naivety a virtue of the unsophisticated, but it looks more like a sin, the more I examine it. Almost a moral failing borne of an incapacity to broaden the mind either through reading, study, or sheer curiosity.

We have in these times a willing multiple of sheeple, primed and ready to be triggered into a murderous mob, murdering reason, truth, justice, and anything of value in their wake. To them and to us is a cautionary tale succinctly condensed into a quote from Voltaire, “They who can make you believe absurdities will make you commit atrocities.”

Question everything deeply

During this pandemic, it is important not to swallow, listen, or read everything you are given, whether they are qualified, dilettantes or disqualified, check the provenance, check their reputation, validate the sources, see if they are peer-reviewed, sort out opinion from fact, verify always and maintain a healthy scepticism. If what you read is too good to be true, it probably is.

Don’t run with it, let it prove itself or ditch. I guess the greatest need for anyone is discernment, the ability to judge a situation well, it might require a bit of research, what you don’t want to be is a stupid fish who swallows it all, hook line and sinker.

Where the information is incomplete, then have as much sense as an old cow, eat the hay and leave the baling wire. Sift the data, filter the deluge, drain out the sludge and seek the value, the truth, the purpose, the motive, the fairness, the justice, and the greater good towards giving you the knowledge and helping humanity. There is so much advice to give, get some antihistamine cream if you’re unfortunate enough to have itching ears.