Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

Tags

American life, American values, guns, mass murder, mental health, misogyny, society ills, violence

Now is the month of Maying, when merry lads are playing! Fa la la la la!
Each with his bonny lass, a-dancing on the grass, fa la la la la!

The Spring, clad all in gladness, doth laugh at Winter’s sadness! Fa la la la la!
And to the bagpipes’ sound, the nymphs tread out the ground! Fa la la la la!

Fie! Then why sit we musing, youth’s sweet delight refusing? Fa la la la la!
Say, dainty nymphs and speak! Shall we play barley break? Fa la la la la!

Years ago, when my children were young I felt highly stressed by the onslaught of all the ‘end of year’ events that a parent just HAD to attend to show support of his/her child – all the end of year school programs, concerts, recitals, church confirmations, Mother’s Day, graduations – all in the month of May. I hated to see the month arrive!

And in May 2014 I find I’m once again distressed, but in a different way. This month has been designated in several ways as ‘special’. Did you know May is National Mental Health Month, Military Appreciation Month, several food appreciation months, several health awareness months, and even National Masturbation Month?

This month a young man with mental illness and hatred for women killed his roommates and several others, before killing himself. The arguments about the ‘why’ are divergent. Is the mental health of an individual the problem? Guns? Social media, where one can join a misogynistic group that objectifies women? What about free speech? Does “anything” go?

In May we have a large focus on our military – those who died in wars, and those who have served, keeping their life, but maybe not a body part. We hail them as heroes, but do we really know what is happening in their lives – their physical and mental health, their financial hardships, their access to weapons, their problems with relationships?

It’s quite a juxtaposition of possible awarenesses. Where do we focus? On the “maying”, the end of winter and hopes of new life and new love, where all is sweet and sexy? Or on the devastation that comes when our society is so out of balance about its values?

In a metaphorical way, our society is crying “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!” We are in distress. Our ship might feel like it is going down, and we are going with it. The term Mayday comes from the French, “venez m’aidez” – Come help me.

We do need help – and who will come? Who will be our savior? We should not look to others for our help, not to the government nor to God. We need to look at ourselves, and take responsibility for our lives. We need to wake up to the fact that there is no one who is coming to take our consequences of bad judgment away from us, either on a personal or collective level. We are fractured – we created that ourselves. Remember Humpty Dumpty? All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again. It is up to us to solve the problems, with compassion and respect for ourselves and others, and pull ourselves together. It’s time to stop the blame game. As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and they are us.”

Now Is the Month of Maying
Lyrics by Sir Thomas Morley