August 22 Word of the Day: Careless
Times arrive, moments and days, when careless is
accepted, the lack of notice people have given to care. Careless occurs and how
an individual will find out is their test of awareness. To pay attention to the
daily news is to experience high levels of carelessness, that being an implicit
element of any news item. One notices a complete lack of opinion pieces
addressing the matter of sins of omission, papers being in the business of
telling us things that must be noticed, not that could have been avoided. Except,
do they? Articles go on for pages itemising sins, the prime cause of their
existence, but can also direct attention to sins of omission; if only someone
had done what they ought, this would not have happened. The author has asked
about the root cause of their news items, unstated but their reason for being,
that cause being not just the given of sin, but also the sin of omission. We tut
and scapegoat, we judge and complain, we turn the page. Sin is very popular as
a subject, it seems, of interest to an average reader, especially while there
is someone to blame, someone who should have done better. Such overload of news
about people in the world leads to the disagreeable condition called
indifference. Can indifference be quantified? Its presence could be accounted
as anywhere between plethora and almost zero. Editorials never headline with
Sins of Omission. But the existence of carelessness is such, it may as well anyway
be the subtitle of most editorials. There is a requirement amongst editors to
keep the terms simple and name the sin. The exhausting experience of witnessing
carelessness daily may, by chance, even prompt one to greater awareness of our
own. This can lead to guilt, doubt, neurosis, everything and sundry, regardless
of immediate need and even one’s own well-being. People in well-paid positions
are available to help deal with your carelessness, your sins of omission, their
job being aid at a price. Relentlessly many people refuse to visit such
well-paid people, choosing instead to join the rank-and-file of the indifferent.
This carelessness may be indulged, becoming widespread, with the cure being remorse,
or simply learning how to stop. But how? Love your neighbour as yourself, as
they say, starting by learning who is your neighbour. The commandment is quite
explicit, five words, while the words needed in each case may expand into books
and lifetimes. The need to be paying attention is the first step. To address
carelessness requires one to notice that the person is there, with needs, a
task that itself is an act of care. Added to which one must have the
preparedness to see the needs and act upon them. In most cases this does not
involve payment of any kind, and may result in reactions and rejections that may
discourage and even cause loss. Sin is so tiresome, it’s stupid. Yet times
arrive when the demand to overcome carelessness cannot be put off another
moment. We must do what we must with that which is at our disposal.
Image: St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne.
