For Me! Mental Health is Political. "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society" said Krishnamurti. I believe that Industrialised society is sick. I believe that Inner City Urban existence is toxic. I'm not sure how long 4 Winds has been in Grangetown http://www.cavamh.org.uk/directories/mental-health-directory/3rd-sector/4winds-user-led-association but I have been here for 25 years with a 4 year sojourn in London. It was whilst in London and then on an extended holiday in Amsterdam that I came face to face with my own Mental Health. This time there was nowhere to hide! I had to look through a glass darkly! When we are unwell, there is a tendency to self hate and self loathing but I'm wondering whether we should reserve that loathing and contempt for a society that doesn't encourage Mental Well-Being! It encourages Competition and in my opinion, competition is injurious to the Soul because that is what we are talking about here, a soul affliction. As I walked to my Voluntary work the other day I crossed an Athletics Track that had been marked into the grass for a Sports Day on Pontcanna Fields.
8 Lanes wide and as I walked across it I stopped, I looked right to the starting line and then left to the finishing line. I remembered the shrill childrens' cries on Sportsdays calling out the name of the most popular, athletic child. For every winner, there is a loser! What happens to the losers in life? They end up as Mental Health Service Users because they are fed up of competing! They have run out of juice. They have run out of coping strategies. Picking Teams? Do you remember that tradition? Last one in the line up to be picked? Oh we'll have Alf! We'll have Jane! Oh No!
At such a young age! We are emotionally branded as not good enough, not by adults but by our own peer group. So let's be fair! From the very beginning. the odds are stacked against us! Maybe we shouldn't really feel so bad about opting out of a profoundly sick society with its road rage and domestic abuse, its commercialism and its shallowness. Maybe we should relish our cup of tea with friends, of breaking bread and the sense of community and refuge offered by Drop-In Centres!
you're right
ReplyDeletei was one who enjoyed the pleasures of victory
but the greatest pleasure of all came years later when i encountered a game of "free football" on my local rec in malmesbury
it took place every sunday morning at ten
every one who turned up was included ... even a man with a wooden leg
sometimes only two or four would show up in flood or snow, other times there might be twenty on each side
we would play until twelve, stopping now and again to change the balance of the teams if one side was winning too easily
the idea was to play for a draw until twelve, and then play the last few minutes for a winner
then we'd all disperse to the pubs
Sounds a wonderfully democratic way to play football with an exciting finale. Thank you for that memory tristan! I've taken a look at your blogs, they look fascinating!
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