- Have you lost your mind?
The question makes me laugh every time I hear my daughter ask one of her precious children. Such a deep question for a little person caught in the act of breaking a well-known rule! What you are doing is so wrong, it looks like you have lost all semblance of sanity . . . whether it’s climbing on countertops, swinging on a sibling, misusing a toy, or throwing a fit, this simple and direct question seems to short-circuit the craziness that propels that little child.
After a crazy news cycle of too much information about other people’s personal lives, I feel like asking my fellow Americans, and their press the same question: Have You Lost Your Mind? We seem content to swim in tidal waves of flat-out silly, dangerous, and depressing obsessions publicized in just the past thirty days:
- Two parents, Michelle and Jim-Bob Duggar who dealt with a family problem privately, knew full well some of the children’s struggles, nevertheless signed on to a reality TV series – a venue that has been inspired for exposing painful personal secrets since 1971 when the Loud invited PBS into their home. (An American Family) They are hurt “someone” violated what they thought were confidential records.
- The press so swoons over Caitlyn, formerly Bruce Jenner, who changed his outward appearance, and redefines “courage” as investing time and money to satisfy an obsession, that they overlook the reality underlying gender identification problems are deeper than surgeons can cut. *
Question: What part of any of these choices seemed like a good idea?
None of these dear souls need condemnation or the criticism that so easily flows when folks are caught in the traps of their own transgressions, or other’s. Every one of them needs compassion, understanding, and they need help working through the problems their choices both reveal and created. But good grief – can’t we just honestly admit to ourselves and accept that just because we can do something, doesn’t we should.
- Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won’t have time to make them all yourself. ~Alfred Sheinwold
- Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. ~Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See
* Bruce Jenner Can Never Be a Woman
* The Absurdity of Transgenderism