Editorial December 2, 1985 Issue

Liberation from slothfulness

CAROLYN B. SWAN

The sloth spends its life practically motionless, hanging upside down from tree branches and blending right in with the foliage. It feeds entirely on convenient leaves, shoots, and fruits. Indeed, the sloth has so come to symbolize sluggishness, apathy, and inactivity that its name is synonymous with these unprogressive qualities.

It's easy to see that slothfulness is inconsistent with man's nature as God's image, the full and spiritual expression of omniactive Life, the one Mind. If not resisted, sloth would slow down, turn off, and paralyze the zeal and vigor essential to our spiritual development in expressing our true selfhood. It would make people members in name only rather than diligent workers in church—chronic leaners on others, in some instances, rather than faithful practitioners of Christian Science, passive receivers rather than active demonstrators of spiritual love.

Mortal mind, belief in intelligence, life, and selfhood separate from God, would justify sloth by contending that those who stay as static and invisible as possible aren't apt to be called on to help others or to extend themselves to serve mankind in worthwhile ways. But is merely hanging on really the posture we want to take in a strife-torn world? Who wants to become so complacent that he just blends right in with the status quo?

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