I have to say that as a people we are really no different than we were thousands of years ago even BC. I know this as I read God’s word and the stories that are there reminding me of the human condition.

What is the human condition- well we are evil by nature and will remain evil until we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and even then when we strive and work hard to be good we are not.

We are different, we work, we strive, but at the end of the day, we are selfish and we fail. We are human.

IN the age I speak of when someone had leprosy they were cast aside and put out from society to be almost exiled.  They were not accepted into the city or with other people, but had to be isolated for public health reasons.

Now our new Leprosy is our mentally ill. Not due to health but due to our own comfort. I speak of the one’s that have burned every bridge in their life to the point of being isolated and alone. They live on the street, or in a home.  Family love them but they do it at arms length and they set boundaries. Those boundaries often include separation of sorts and again the person is isolated. Isolated just as someone with leprosy, not because of contagion but because many reasons, they don’t look like us or they get on our nerves or we are just plain tired of the journey of it.

I am not judging, I write this as I have lived it. I write this from a place of conviction yet have no answers of how this can change or get better. I write this as I am just as bad as the Doctor that refuses to treat a drug addict with heart valve damage who appears homeless or has been homeless. You see,  the physical body tells the doc of the addiction that it has been through, seeking to medicate themselves versus modern medicine.  Without even a blink of an eye or guilt,  he covers his documentation with proper language to keep himself from being sued. No guilty conscious even as they tell themselves ‘this person doesn’t have quality of life anyway’….. hmmm.

So, Let’s talk about the mentally ill. The one’s who don’t look like us, or act like us. The individual that speaks to the air, to his book bag, to all cars riding down the street. He/She looks unkempt,  burly, tanned and often dirty. Sometimes they don’t say anything at all, just stare off – oh yeah those are the ones that take their meds and appear to be zombies, but

I would say the mentally ill are the new leprosy …

They don’t get looked at or even acknowledged at times. Society  keeps them isolated, and alone because no one wants to deal with it in their life. No one wants to be around psychosis and hallucinations or delusions because it aggravates us as we live in the present and well we don’t want to live in the twighlight zone. No one wants to be pulled into the drama, the hurt, the anguish.  I get it, I have lived it, but as a people group as humanity, there must be a better way.

We talk about inclusion all the time, diversity, and acceptance….what about this people group?

Why is it so hard to accept them, include them, and realize that they matter, that they are humans that should be treated with respect and dignity just as any human being.

Mental health is a public health problem as our mental health drives our physical health. So I wonder in this first world country that I live in, why has no one found a suitable answer or solution to our country’s mental health problem?

I am gonna end with a beautiful quote or story by Ram Dass-

“When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and allow it. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans you loose all that. And you are constantly saying’you’re too this, or I’m too this.’ That Judging mind come in. And So I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them the way they are.”

Acceptance is the first step, seeing it with our eyes, acknowledging…. only then can a solution be formed.