When ‘the darkness’ never leaves, nor the choice of ‘the guardian light’

PARENTING is a parallel experience that must be tempered with our own experiences, inherited wisdom and that of the social world in which we live. For instance, is the new year alight with bright things or only the continuation of all that the last year ended with? The latter is more the reality, though not the conclusion, as the task ahead always rests with wrestling with the angel for the blessing of courage to fill the space within that is left empty of effort or resistance against the depressing whispers heckling on our fears, daunting our confidence to confront the realities we must shape into our likeness, against the obstacles that marred the entrance and exit a mere twelve months ago.

The priority of parents is to find a way so that our children must not be concealed from the environment of human nature. For example, I attempted to console a friend recently on the collapse of a relationship both of us thought would last a lifetime. The sad fact was that the difference in our upbringings determined our different responses to the question he was facing. I was schooled to the rugged openness that there is deceit; people damaged during their upbringing, and people who will naturally feign affection.

I approach everything with trust, hope and caution with a ‘Plan B’, so I’m a little paranoid. My buddy thought that love, church, and honesty would automatically generate the same response, but it didn’t happen. No! In many cases, it doesn’t, and I blame the formula of his upbringing. My reason for coming to that conclusion rests with paying attention while growing to adulthood. Another example rests with my preschool teacher’s son a few years ago. This was a no-nonsense lady with sound principles that she passed on to her son, and her not-so-obedient preschool students. I had moved from the area for over 40 years when I read that he had committed suicide. They were staunch church people, and Christianity does not endorse suicide, as far as I know.

De Lamentables far out of Sun

Then I met Regina, aka Raj, another slightly older schoolfriend whom I admired from afar. Raj told me she was informed that our schoolmate had misused some church money, and a young lady seemed to be in the shadows of that temptation. The church had involved the police, and the world around our schoolfriend collapsed. Before he was even arrested, he had committed suicide. This brother had adopted a world that didn’t leave room for human error, serious reconciliation and redemption which enshrined the philosophy he was raised in. His act certainly conflicted with the very religious beliefs that he was expected to nurture and pay attention to and advocate. Somehow, the essence of forgiveness and redemption escaped his adopted worldview, regrettably, when it came to his challenge.

I am grateful for my youth-era conversations about Demons and Devils in the context that I was introduced to this area. The parents and guardians in the ‘60s & ‘70s, even to this day, did not possibly have the literature or had experienced the education to understand the cultural damage of social systems, along with mental deficiencies such as sociopaths, psychopaths, narcissism and the list of other human personality disorders that affect humans, and other related taboos revolving around adulthood and sexuality. Into those important talks were current religion and the past (more ancient) religious doctrines that we today refer to as folklore and myths, that inserted the notion that ‘The darkness and light of past lives exist in the present’ and thus never leave, but but can be invited in or inherited.

Today, we realise that there may be some truth in these old stories, since there are arguments through studies that indicate that ‘culture and genes’ are presumed to incorporate influences on orientations to certain skills, and also sustain innate prejudices over timelines. (See the outline of study ‘Is there a genetic contribution to cultural differences? Baldwin M. Way and Matthew D. Lieberman’ and other related publications.) This area is a serious exploration that can impact the theme of this article, ‘When the Darkness Never Leaves’ because the theme reflects fears from the intensity of fears planted that may prevent people (outside of medical, psychological problems) faced with difficult social situations to seek solutions without understanding the entire origin of a situation and its workable options, which would empower the best means for the solutions to conclude.

But with the darkness dwells the positive opposing light that also never leaves, as the old Folk Religions implore, and the current Religions, their offspring; endorse, it not what is preached, but what honourable works are done that exalts the soul, and pays tribute to grand Father’s and Mother’s sacrifices, easier said in a world of desperate opportunism propelled by the predominant order of conspicuous cultic flamboyance.

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