A story is told of a guy who contracted a sexually transmitted disease from his girlfriend. After getting treatment, he went to meet the lady in order to rebuke her for infecting her. He came back with another STD.
One of the key struggles the human race has had is the congruence between our intentions and actions. Many a times we have good intentions and plans but we seldom execute them. The mind is the rational, thoughtful and well-intentioned part of us. The body on the other hand comprises of our impulses, baser instincts and drives. These two are in constant conflict within us every moment. More often than not, the body wins. When the body wins, the mind follows along with excuses.
In the Bible, Jesus tells his disciples to pray lest they fall into temptation because “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” Your mind keeps telling you no, no, please don’t, while your body says, yes, yes, this lets do this. A lot of times what the body encourages us to do is not in our best interests, especially our future selves.
Our problem is not necessarily a lack of knowledge but the inability to implement what we know. Ask anyone who has made New Year resolutions. Addicts know that substance abuse is harmful to them. Obese people know that they need to cut down on calories. Most of us wear masks on our chins. Protracted suffering has been caused by brief sexual encounters by people who have attended seminars on how to use a condom. Mutahi Kagwe type lectures are usually not very effective. Talking of health, do we really need a press conference every day on the number of new coronavirus cases? The information is not helpful in the behavior change of common mwananchi. I digress.
We hardly need a Ted talk on how to procrastinate or how to satisfy our instinctual needs. This comes naturally. Centuries ago, when our uncles and aunties were roaming around, they did not have to think about the future in most cases. They only needed to survive today. When they came across a buffalo, they either killed or were killed. Those who were good at immediate gratification survived. While those who thought about the greater good, getting along with the buffaloes, perished. We inherited our “selfish genes” from the survivors. Of course, our environment has now fundamentally changed. There are no buffaloes threatening our lives. We now have the luxury of thinking about tomorrow and to delay gratification. But our natural instincts are still stronger than our minds.
What do we do? One way of beating the “system” is to borrow a leaf from the story of Odysseus from Greek mythology. Odysseus is a war hero and sailor who is warned about sirens, beautiful women who sing irresistibly songs to entrap the sailors. Many sailors who listen to the sirens stray to the nearby island and end up dead. Odysseus came up with a plan to overcome the challenge as he crossed the waters. He filled up all his soldiers with wax in their ears so that they could not hear the sound of the sirens. He then had himself tied to the mast. As they crossed the waters, Odysseus heard the sweet music of the sirens. The music was so enchanting that he struggled to let himself loose to join the sirens. He had, however, instructed his soldiers that if he tries to unrestraint himself they should tie him further and should not let him loose until they were safely past the poisoned sweet sounds of the sirens. Our friend should have carried a condom!
Fabio