war is the worst human invention

"It's not right for a woman to read, soon she gets ideas, and starts thinking....
"Oh Gaston, you are positively primeval.."
"Why, thank you Belle"
Disney, Beauty and the Beast, teller of stories.

To put it plainly, mental illness is one of the most, if not the most stigmatized and misunderstood types of illness known to modern people. The way we define, diagnose and treat mental illness varies greatly all over the planet. There is no consensus as to the best methods in either the short or long term and people in the field come under scrutiny by people in fields of holistic health and other fields when they make choices that affect the whole lives of patients who in many cases are rendered helpless in the face of both their illness and people who feel they know what is best for them.

One of the aspects of this problem is the fact that, especially in the United States where I live and have been able to observe this, once a person is given a diagnosis, there is a tendency to become so complacent with the news, that the person begins to attribute all of their failings and problems to the disease. I am not asserting that none of them are due to the disease, but frequently there is no way to accurately tease out what is really a symptom and what is due to a person giving up, giving in, choosing to step away from their self care tasks.

To put mental illness in a context we will all recognize, historical conflicts have led to World Wars. This is problematic for so many reasons. War is essentially the worst invention humanity has come up with. One main reason leading to the Second World War was the man we know as Adolf Hitler was dramatically mentally ill but charismatic enough to find reasons to stoke the fires of fear in German people. The fallout from these atrocities left massive collective pain and wounds in people of Jewish, Romany, African descent, not to mention all folks who are further toward the homosexual end of the sexual preference spectrum. These wounds do not leave stigmata on your hands, they leave stigma, in families, in communities. They cause alienation, separation and misunderstanding.

The true causes of actual mental illnesses are greed, hatred and ignorance. These are under identified as actual sickness when in fact they cause more suffering than any group of humans that has ever been targeted by any governmental body in all of our history on this absurd and stubbornly fascinating planet. How do I know this? Just look at the fallout from the cyclical nature of oppression Men against women, women taking arms against men, people of varying skin colors pitted against each other for jobs that mean almost nothing, where turn over rates at low paying expendable positions become the norm, call it capitalism, call it socialism, until we individually control the conditions of our labor respectively, and can advocate for those who are impaired, who cannot advocate for the people in need, the dream of America the Beautiful is not one we have made come alive. We can make this dream come alive.

Examining your own intentions for leadership in any capacity will potentially unearth the reason for your purpose in that seat of power.

Let the secular and the spiritual join forces. Let science and spirituality intersect for the highest common good.

We the people have come way too far to turn back now.