Dear Editor,

A seasoned maths teacher, now deceased, would often pause his lessons to tell his students of practical, yet simple, ways of tackling some of our challenges as individuals and as a society.

Mr De Bruin, that maths teacher, once took one of those empty pint drinks cardboard boxes, flattened it, and folded it three or four times using his fingers. With that bit of garbage, now about a quarter of the size it once was, he proffered that this could save on garbage disposal space. It might not seem to be the promise of a major impact on our lives, but imagine if all Jamaicans would be conscious and conscientious enough to do same. It takes a certain type of people to take such simple solutions and ‘run with it’, and unfortunately, the vast majority of Jamaicans do not qualify as such and the reasons may be demonstrated by the following biblical messages/stories.

Jamaicans have a sense of entitlement that is so strong that it distracts us from acknowledging our shortcomings and misgivings, which we regard as petty, justifying such whilst observing attitudes, values, and behaviour that are comparatively undeserving of the emphasis we put on them. So just as how Jesus chastised the scribes and Pharisees for their criticism of Him and His disciples not holding the tradition of hand-washing before they eat, held by the elders, whilst they dishonoured those same elders by taking advantage of them because of their dependence on their children, so it is with our observance of the simple things that bring out the better in us. So we dispose of that bulky plastic bottle or drinks box in the waste bin as it is, and that’s it.

Also, like Naaman, a captain of the Syrian army which had dominion over Israel, who considered it insulting for Elisha, a prophet of God, to advise him to go wash himself in low-profile river Jordan in order to be miraculously healed of his leprosy, we are often too ahead of ourselves, neglecting the simple ‘truth’ or spark in anticipation of the more sophisticated ‘fireworks’. The devil is not just a liar, but is the “father of it”. And how do we prefer to believe a lie that opens up possibilities that are numerous and are of enormity rather than the truth which is just ‘so-so’.

Lastly, the truth is not something that a person discovers, but rather, it is the truth that searches and finds its recipient. Like a shepherd to his sheep, his voice, or his truth is known by them, and they receive and understand it, the word of God, made flesh, is that truth, and it, which had been sent by God, is that shepherd. So it is not that ‘the truth is out there’, which is the tag line for the sci-fi television series The X Files, the truth was never lost, and it is we who are lost and need to be found by it (Him). And even with 99 other established environment-rescuing methods, that one simple method can be so important to ‘the Master’.

Witnessing that simple demonstration of an approach to a problem was not about a teacher that was STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)-driven delivering to a cohort of students pursuing their exams in STEM-related subjects, it was a teacher who knew that one of his students might someday make a difference, because there needs to be.

Andre O Sheppy

astrangely @outlook.com