PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELFARE

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVI, Issue 95, 18 May 1938, Page 3

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELFARE

CRADLE TO GRAVE.—I. (By “Silent Peter”). Dear People,— “And now let me have a nice, quiet ‘think’ while I have the time,” reflects John Newzealand, sprawling happily in his cot in the warm sunlight. “Later on in life, I shall be too much in the midst of things to be able to see them in the whole. I suppose I am already about six months old, and it is therefore high time to take stock of my chances in life. These people with whom I live—my mother and my father, probably—are exceptionally kind to me. It remains to be seen, however, whether they are actually wise or merely fatuous. SIX MONTHS OF AGE. “Up to the present,” admits John, “I have nothing whatever to grumble at. My milk rations leave my nerves and my tissues in a state of tranquility and satisfaction. I am given' plenty of time for sleeping and for meditation. I spend long hours in breathing’ sensuously of the radiant air, amazed at the power that flows through my body with each lungful; receiving with ecstasy the life-giving sunshine which enters through my skin; and realising without the necessity for thinking some of the many miracles which are constantly taking place in my body—the rapid building up of gland and muscle, the stimulating circulation of the blood, the delicious stirring of vigorous forces within me. MOULDING FORCES. “Let me,” crows John Newzealand, rapturously kicking up cuhbby pink legs and trying to swallow his fist — “let me make a short survey of my life, as I am likely to live it. Just at present, I am rather a helpless object, utterly dependent upon a set of human beings, in the home, in the commuiity and in the world, w'hose ideas appear to be not only sadly out of date but also sadly out of focus. I cannot help asking myself: What: chance have I, so puny a morsel of humanity, against the overwhelming forces arrayed against me? To begin with, there are three mighty influences which will between them make or mar me, and any single one of which is sufficiently strong to smash my life almost beyond redemption. Those three moulding forces are heredity, nutrition and environment. NUTRITION, ENVIRONMENT, HEREDITY. “True nutrition includes feeding, sleep, rest, exercise, pure water and fresh air. Environment means the provision of decent conditions, good housing, suitable occupation and a balanced intellectual ration (i.e., general education, moral training, ethical teaching and opportunities for spiritual development). Heredity is compounded of a mixture of past experiences in nutrition and environment. I must face the fact that prei sent environmental forces include the enormous, accumulated powers of tradition and custom, which have already decided upon moulding my life to an old, outworn pattern which is almost wholly at variance with the intentions of Nature and with which I, myself, desire. A BLESSING OR A CURSE? “Naturally, I do not as yet know what hereditary influences may be already at work within me and which may have to be fought down with blood and tears; nor yet do I know what advantages heredity may already be arraying in my behalf with a view to simplifying my progress through life. It is quite possible that I have been born a being doomed to the tendencies of a dipsomaniac, an epileptic, a criminal, a madman or a waster, by unwittingly carrying- within my system an overplus of the chromosomes of some progenitor whose only claim to immortality is the transmission and the perpetuation of some . such curse. So far as the power of heredity is concerned, the prevention of my own possible disabilities will now be a difficult task and should have received attention long before I was ever thought of. PREVENTION OR AMELIORATION? “Well, here I am, with a number of hereditary impulses and tendencies already rooted more or less deeply in my being. I can see that the safeguarding of my life may only effectively be accomplished by the co-ordination of nutritional, psychological, recreational, occupational and medical care and attention.”