People were seen coming our of a village shop in Benson which had the lowest temperature recorded in our big freeze, with three loaves and several cartons of milk. Now the shop is empty. They were ‘stocking their freezers’ We are programmed to store up food for the lean times. Animals put on fat for the winter so that they can live off their reserves. We can read complicated discussions of dieting that explain to us how starving yourself leads the body to go into storage mode and divert energy into fat. So no wonder that something that looks like an emergency: snow and ice and stories of people stuck in cars and trains for long periods sends us all into preparing for winter mode.
This would be fine if it weren’t for the danger of depriving the less able, the less active and the less well off. People in the village of Benson may have come to the shop later and found nothing. This is the problem of altruism. Can we risk being generous when it is not for our own family or friends or anyone we know personally? Why would an individual do that? A more fruitful question might be :Why would an individual be afraid to do that? Optimism and hope are often in short supply and they are hard to acquire if your upbringing has taught you that not much good will come your way.
Psychoanalysis teaches us that we might be generous of not, although we will always incline towards our own safety and preservation. The important point is to understand our motivation. Some of my suspicion and lack of hope might be coming from the past and could be left behind in the present. Psychotherapy will enable each person to examine their own motives and then choose the path that is really wanted and needed in the present rather than simply trekking down the old path with our eyes shut.
Perhaps we are all capable of seeing both that the snow is beautiful and a huge problem. It is not just one or the other. In the same way, I need to make sure that I can stay alive and I also want to consider my neighbour’s needs. The two sets of feelings can co-exist.
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