THOSE HEALTH IDEALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22365, 12 September 1934, Page 4

THOSE HEALTH IDEALS

By L. F. de Berry, M.A. (Under the Auspices of the Sunlight League.) How the practical man loves to divide mankind into two classes—the practical person and the idealist! He is quite sure that these two classes arc mutually exclusive and so he acts and talks accordingly. Who does not remember the scorn poured by the armchair critic on Sir lan Hamilton because he loved and wrote poetry? Even at this distance one can recall the almost ribald tones that the practical ones adopted when the word “poet” was used in the stressful days of 1914-1918. But ore we so sure that wc have here a perfect dichotomy? Can the practical stand alone and unsupported by the ideal? May it not he that Shelley was correct when he said, “ Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world ” ? Is it not, rather, nearer the truth to proclaim that the practical can stand only when it is based on a worthy ideal? Listen again to a poet, this time to Robert Bridges: “ The high goal of our great endeavour is spiritual attainment, individual worth, at all cost to be sought and at all cost pursued, to be won at all cost and at all cost assured ; not such material ease as might be attained for all, by cheap production and distribution of common needs, was all life levcll’d down to where the lowest can reach.” Here the value of individual worth is stressed and mankind again reminded that man does not live by bread alone. From the time of Plato, and earlier, men have speculated upon the “ aim of life ” and many have been the goals set before mankind, but all thinkers have agreed that some form of expression, of creativeness —now in the material, now in the spiritual realm—has contained the germ of the true aim. , At some stages in human development and in some places the body and all that pertains to the body have been despised—so it has whipped and torn and “ brought into subjection ” to a type of spiritual ideal that itself suffered and which failed to give man, any of the noble things for which he strove. Modern research in both the branches of physical and mental well-being has amply demonstrated that truth which both the Greeks and the Romans most clearly apprehended, that mental and physical and moral health and development are dependent one upon the other — indeed that unity demands a harmonious progression.

The psychologists insist upon emphasising the effect that a beautifully functioning body has upon sane and noble .thoughts and, while pointing out to us that the aim of life is the expression and realisation of the noblest and highest' self possibly conceived, have urged the relationship between a healthful blood supply and a beautifully functioning and harmonious body. Hence the value of pointing to the ideals for which the .Sunlight League stands. True, the mere fact of knowing what those ideals are does not necessarily ensure that they are practised; but there is a virtue in pointing out the splendour and the simplicity of bodily and mental and emotional health and vigour.

The psychologist too frequently, in his elaborate analyses, forgets the essential oneness of man, and so it becomes more and more necessary to pause and to ask just what all these analyses mean and what lesson they have for the man or woman who simply seeks that “ abundant life” that has been so frequently promised to all those who earnestly seek for it.

• What are some of the necessary conditions for this noble self-expression and realisation? There appear to be two—first, mental and spiritual energy must be accumulated and, secondly, that energy must be wisely expended, used, shared.

To discover how best" to do this we must go to the sources of that energy. These are, first that great source of all physical energy—the sun-; and secondly all those factors directly and indirectly dependent upon the sun, food being one of the chiefs. Is it any wonder that in ancient times our ancestors recognising this, went to the extent of worshipping the sun? What, to-day are all the lessons of science and particularly of medical and dietary science but a discovery—iu many cases a rediscovery—of our debt ts| solar energy and an attempt to enable and persuade man to use ■ to greater and fuller extent those benign forces which the Great Giver of All has made available? Witness the improvements in architecture seeking to bring into our homes the benefits of sunshine and fresh air; the purifying of the air by seeking the abatement of smoke; the researches into food content, into vitamins and their functions; the endeavours to give fresh and pure air. water and food; and it will be appreciated that these are but attempts to banish all that hinders mankind from gaining abundant supplies of the energy that is being so lavishly shed abroad. While man lives, he is expending his energy and how wastefully And yet how difficult it is to alter these wasteful methods! We know many of the laws governing fatigue, the need for rest and for recreation, the value of selfcontrol, the need for temperance in all things. In a word, we know that it is only by harmony that we can develop and enjoy the full life, and yet we are surrounded by courses of action that are the relics of days of ignorance and superstition. Wliat is the remedy? The development, first, of a healthy “ conscience ” in these matters, and, secondly, the formation of habits that will tend to harmonious living and that will free the soul, and the body too, for those tasks that still lay ahead of us. Herein lies the value of the series of articles that have preceded this one. Their purpose has been to awaken or maybe create first a personal and then a public conscience that strives for a nobler race, and secondly to encourage habits of health that will lead to the ideals of beauty, truth and goodness.

The above concludes the Sunlight league's series of seven articles. They are being reprinted In a booklet, which will be sent to any reader who sends six penny stamps to the honorary secretary. Sunlight League, 58 St. Martins road, Christchurch.