Thought For The Day #32

Broadcast 20th of August 2014 on BBC Radio Bristol

Audio available at http://www.mytalky.com/CAC

So, we’ve been talking about self-injury this morning. It’s a difficult subject to get my head around. There’s so much suffering in the world, why would anyone want to add to it? Of course, self-injury isn’t straightforward and can’t simply be written off as madness. It is often the result of deep, unresolved emotions and I know from my training as a psychotherapist, that emotions can have unexpected ways of working themselves out.

To put it in perspective, I don’t really think self-injury is all that illogical when compared to our behaviour as a species. Think of the evidence for climate change for example. The consensus is that human beings are artificially increasing the temperature of the planet. And unless we take drastic measures to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions we will reap untold havoc on our precious earthly home. Yet nation after nation is failing to make the necessary reductions. This behaviour is simply illogical.

Perhaps this goes someway to demonstrate the weight we all carry in our heads. To be alive is a lot harder than it seems. How can we save the planet and pay the rent? How can we have deep emotions and be a functional member of society? It’s a lot to take responsibility for and I think it’s hardly surprising that each and every one of us isn’t always a perfect role model.

Personally I don’t see there being a distinction between the problems we face as a species and the problems we face as individuals. Life is asking a massive amount of all of us. And frankly I’m impressed with anybody that’s sincerely giving this human being thing a proper go.