Not so selfish?

One of the NZ Herald's best columnists is Tapu Misa.   She doesn't seem to write on a regular basis, that is, you won't find one of her columns in the same place each week.   However, when she does write, she always has something worthwhile to say.   (Would that the rest of us could follow suit!)

One of her most recent columns has been entitled Courage, Compassion make nice change, which doesn't sound like Misa.  It has the ring of some subeditor who didn't read the article very carefully and dumped a few quick words on top of it.   (Of course, I could be wrong.)

In this piece, Misa points out that selfishness, in spite of what we've been told, isn't necessarily the norm for human beings.   People do put themselves on the line for others, even give their lives for others.  She cites a few examples in recent NZ news, (and there are a surprising number of heroes in our recent history) and notes that Sue Gerhardt, the author of The Selfish Society, "does much to dispel the myth that we humans are relentlessly self-centred, self-interested beings who do good only when it serves our own ends."

Check the article out.   It's always good to read good news. 

How to really love your child

Tapu Misa, the NZ Herald columnist, begins her latest column with these words: 

When I was a younger mother of three preschoolers, doing a barely reasonable job, my daughter's preschool gave her a book called How To Really Love Your Child.

At the time I wasn't sure whether to feel offended (how dare they suggest I needed lessons in how to love my child?) or embarrassed (how did they know I needed lessons in how to love my child?). I found out later that the preschool gave copies to everyone - for good reason.

The author, American psychiatrist Dr Ross Campbell, was right. Most parents need lessons in how to love, especially (but not only) if they haven't been loved themselves.

Misa goes on to discuss how many parents who abuse their children have never know love in their own childhoods, and how there's a slow but sure move towards teaching people to love their kids, in New Zealand.   

Campbell's book was first published in 1977, and has sold continuously since.  It has been translated in 20 languages, including Russian.   It was one of our 'staples' when I worked in the bookstore.  

Forgive the lack of pictures  in recent posts: Google is having some issue with uploading them.

Equality is better for everyone

Tapu Misa recently noted: Inequality, as epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett argue in their 2009 book The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, hurts us all. As well as links to higher crime, ill-health, shorter life expectancy and a range of social pathologies, inequality drives a wedge between people, corroding trust and raising levels of anxiety. Perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised then that an annual Massey University survey has found we've become more tolerant of income inequality, even as we've become more unequal.

An Amazon reviewer points out: Within the 400+ pages of this book, [Wilkinson and Pickett] emphasize that it is not the poor and the deprived in isolation who suffer from the effects of inequality, but also the bulk of that nation's population. According to their findings. incidences of mental illness, for example, are 500% higher across the whole population spectrum in the most unequal societies than they in the most 'equal' ones. [My italics]

Misa also notes:

In his 2009 book Justice, the Harvard professor of philosophy Michael Sandel writes that while politicians have largely ignored inequality, philosophers have been debating the just distribution of income and wealth since the 1970s.

He argues an important reason to worry about the growing inequality of American life is that "too great a gap between rich and poor undermines the solidarity that democratic citizenship requires".

This blog has recently produced its 700th post. Wow.

Simple approaches to wellbeing

In the October edition of In Touch, the newsletter put out by the Mental Health Foundation of NZ, five ways to improve your wellbeing were noted. Wellbeing and wellness are much of our focus here at National Mission, and so I'm passing on these five points (with a few of my own comments in brackets).

They begin by saying that wellbeing is a state of feeling good and functioning well. The five ways to wellbeing - all simple, straightforward approaches - are as follows:

1. Connect: develop your relationships with friends, family, colleagues and neighbours. These connections support you and enrich your life. [Tapu Misa wrote about this aspect of health in one of her recent columns.]

2. Give: do something for a friend or stranger and see yourself and your happiness as linked to the wider community. [Think of the 'Pay it Forward' approach]

3. Take notice: be aware of the world around you and see the beauty in [both] everyday and unusual things - reflecting on them helps you appreciate what matters to you. [Note the word reflecting: taking notice takes time.]

4. Learn: try something new or rediscover an old interest, or take on a new responsibility or challenge. Learning makes you more confident and can be fun.

5. Be active: physical activity helps you to feel good so find something that you enjoy and that suits your personality. [The biggest difficulty with this is that when you feel down, it's hard to get moving in physical activity, even something as simple as going for a walk. Having someone else to do the activity with you makes a huge difference. The same applies to point 4.]

The debate continues - thank goodness!

A few posts ago I wrote about an editorial that appeared in the NZ Herald which berated the Christian churches for not speaking out about poverty in NZ. It seems more and more likely that whoever wrote the editorial was struggling for something that might be a little controversial. Suffice to say, an opinion piece by Tapu Misa showed up some of the fallacies in the editorial, and on Friday, David Moxon and Brown Turei also added the voices to the debate.

At least the Herald was gracious enough to allow some differing opinions on the matter. Moxon and Turei's piece finishes with these sentences:
Outside the state, the churches are the biggest providers of social services in this country. This field is our daily reality. Challenging political policy and wanting to influence the shaping of policy with Christian values in these areas is crucial. It always has been and always will be.
You can read the rest of the piece by clicking here.

Archbishop David Moxon and Archbishop Brown Turei are Co-Presiding Bishops of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia.

Tapu Misa on what the church has to say

For those who don't read the NZ Herald, it sometimes takes a while to catch up with opinion pieces and reports that come from that paper.

I've just found a 'perspective' by Tapu Misa, an Auckland journalist with an extensive career across a variety of media. She's been a feature writer for the NZ Herald in the past, and a staff writer for MORE and North & South magazines. She wrote this piece last Wednesday, and it makes a good comparison to the NZ Herald editorial I wrote a post about last week.

In it she looks at whether the church both has the right to pronounce on the nation, and whether it still has the moral integrity to do so. Well worth a read!

Incidentally, Misa's relatively recent conversion experience (2007) is the subject of another one of her columns.