The Dangers of Apathy

Life and its obligations keep us so busy that we may go through our days, follow our routines and slowly feel bored. Then we sense that we need a vacation. But at the end of that vacation we return to our days, our routines, our boredom. We keep ourselves busy because the business becomes a refuge from feelings that we subconsciously avoid.

We may convince ourselves that we're happy; after all, we have everything that we need. But inside there's a piece missing. The piece is the connection between our hearts or souls and the joy of living.

We may have become apathetic because we're afraid of feeling the full gamut of emotions that life demands. We may be trying to protect ourselves from feeling pain or loss. We think that we're succeeding; but we're not. We may be able to fool ourselves but there are others whom we can't fool.

They're our families.

Spouses and children are the ones who sense that some part of us is hidden. We may even have married a person who complements us by being more emotional and outwardly affectionate than us. So our solution works to a degree.

But not completely.

Whereas a spouse might be able to live with an incomplete adult, children cannot. They yearn for a complete parent. Otherwise, they too will deal with pain by separating themselves from it. They might learn not to express their emotions because it's not safe.

Instead, they'll behave differently. They might comply with all the rules but develop a secret life in their heads or in their actions. Alternatively, they may act up in order to create problems that will bring the parent more fully into the picture.

Children need us as healthy, whole beings. We in turn can grow and fulfill our potential through raising our children and learning from our interactions with them.

The greatest danger of all is apathy.