Feeding the Serpent & Starving the Watchdog
View(s):On Monday the 23rd of December 1985, in the little city known as Sparks, Nevada, Raymond Belknap and James Vance had spent most of the day drinking beer, smoking marijuana and listening to heavy metal records. The British metal band Judas Priest was amongst the albums Belknap and Vance believed to have listened to. At that time Belknap and Vance were eighteen (18) and twenty (20) years old, they decided to visit a nearby playground and shoot themselves with a 12 – gauge shotgun. Belknap and Vance’s families sued Judas Priest’s label, CBS Records for a $6.2 million (approximately $14.2 million in 2017). They argued in court that the pair were driven towards committing suicide by auditory signals concealed in Judas Priest’s song “Better by You, Better than Me”. The plaintiffs claimed that the song contained a subliminal message – “Do it” – urging listeners to take their own lives. Similarly, I am certain that most of you have heard of a very sad story of a young Sri Lankan boy who attended a very famous school in Colombo, murdered his parents due to his affiliation with a destructive cult.
I am extremely concerned about what my children are exposed to, as I am well aware that what they are exposed to can take control of their style of thinking or it could even influence them in the decisions they make. Neuroscience which is also known as Neural Science, is the study of how the nervous system develops, its structure and what it does. Neuroscientists focus on the brain and its impact on the behaviour and cognitive (reasoning) functions. Neuroscience is the study of natural science that impacts on thoughts, perceptions, emotions, motivations, decisions and actions. Whatever we may feed or expose our brain to, is what it will get accustomed towards and so it reasons situations based on what is stored in the brain.
Once there was a fourteen (14) year old boy who used a certain number of words in filth whenever he spoke, when I advised him he asked me if it was wrong to use those words. After a close diagnosis of his surroundings, it was evident that those words are just commonly and widely used in their vocabulary. The question we must ask ourselves as parents is, what are we allowing our children to feed their minds with? Are they feeding a venomous serpent or are they feeding a protective watchdog? Unfortunately, nowadays many youngsters are feeding the serpent and starving the watchdog. Are we willingly permitting our children to play with the sources that could one day destroy them? Are we not guiding them to strengthen what they ought to strengthen?
Just five minutes ago my daughter Esther was making a huge fuss to avoid eating radish, which is indeed a very healthy vegetable. She attempted to avoid it as it did not taste good to her palette. Yet, my wife insisted that she must eat it and we also educated her of the benefits of eating Radish. Though she may have not understood our explanation we made it a point that she ate it as it is certainly going to be beneficial for her. Similarly, are we conscious of the things which our children expose their five senses into, because it might need a lot of effort to be uprooted in case their brains have chosen something negative as their default pleasurable avenue.
We cannot completely restrict our children from using the internet as that is the space they have to learn and work in the future. It is essential that we guide them to make sure that they have control over the internet rather than being blinded until the internet takes control over them. Just because the world defines certain norms it does not mean that you are obliged to blindly embrace them into your lives. The world is so deceived that many people tend to set their happiness parameters based on what other people set for them. Having breakfast at a five star hotel is indeed good but just because it is a norm set by your neighbour to suit their high income, it should not be your norm of happiness if you cannot fathom such a practice due to the capacity of your income.
It is so sad to see people chasing after things that they cannot handle and finally they let those strike them until they are depressed because all they have been doing is feeding the serpent whilst ignoring the watchdog.
In life there are times that we must be offensive as well as there are the times that we must be defensive. Whatever our approach may be, we need to be well equipped with relevant armoury regardless of if they are offensive or defensive. What are we building in our children’s lives? Can those safeguard them as a towering wall that could protect them during life’s battles or are you just turning a blind eye when they are laying a foundation in the seashore on the sea sand. Our foundation must be extremely solid unless we will collapse the moment we are knocked down by the pressures in life. Therefore, let us always be vigilant in feeding our mind with things that will safeguard our mind rather than the corruptive things of this world.
Let us program our brains to be aligned with what is right, noble and praiseworthy. Generally, our brain could be categorised into two, firstly, system 01 which is also referred to as the subconscious mind is fast, unconscious and automatic in responding to life’s situations. For example, when someone asks you “What’s your name?” Then you do not have to rationalise and think. For years and years your brain has been fed with your name, as soon as it is asked, it will quickly respond with the available information which is stored in this section. The other one is system 02 which is your conscious mind, it is deliberate, conscious and it seeks a lot of effort. For example, if someone asks you “How much is 248 x 376”, you must put a deliberate effort in order to arrive at the answer. If you have answered the question 248 x 376 a thousand times, then if you are asked that question your brain will automatically reply to it.
Just as you do not buy everything in the market you must be very careful of the places that you go to and the people that you associate. When I observe someone’s plate of food I could generally read their mind plate as well. Pleasure is pleasure and it generally aligns with each other be it physical pleasure or mental pleasure. What do you have in your mind plate? Are they feeding the serpents within you or around you or are they feeding the watchdogs who protect you during times of calamity? The serpent and the watchdog are both within you. The one you feed the most will be the king of your mind. The challenge we all have is that in today’s highly modernised world, the serpent does not appear in black with two sharp teeth, it is certainly aware that the people will definitely recognise it and reject it.
Instead, the serpent appears as a warm-hearted watchdog. Certain words some people tell you are so motivating and inspiring that you tend to blindly believe them. The day that they run away with your wife would be the day that you will realise that you have been feeding a serpent for many years mistaking it for a watchdog.
That is why I always mention that you must make sure you safeguard your heart as life is born from your heart. Just as it is a difficult task to differentiate the original from the fake product, so is it to differentiate good from bad. Your children need high impacting correction, direction and development. Nevertheless, they will fail in the future. Drugs, Depression and Fear have taken control over this generation. Unless we guide them their lives will certainly be miserable.
For comments: e-mail: philipnehri.m@gmail.com / voice: 0774 88 56 56
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