It was a newly resurfaced road. Barely had the tarmac cooled down when part of the road caved in. A gaping, dangerous cavity appeared, smack in the centre of the shiny new road. Was this just an accident or another typical piece of shoddy work where what you see is no longer what you get?

The country is still reeling from the trauma of the death of Jean Paul Sofia, a victim of exactly the same rotten work ethos that has become almost a definition of our construction industry. The situation seems even more desperate. This is becoming our new way of life.

We build marvellously refurbished, technologically over-equipped schools. Yet we resort to lowering educational standards and academic requirements to ensure sustainable student numbers.

New couples ruin and exhaust themselves to pay for impossibly expensive, new, comfortable houses or luxury holiday cruises. Yet, relationships are becoming increasingly fragile and short-lived. No wonder committed marriages are decreasing and convenient cohabitation increasing.

As a society we are migrating from heart to skin, from substance to form, from spirit to matter, from soul to body

The country boasts full employment, but what about work ethics, honesty and reliability, where a day’s work means a day’s work? Bars and restaurants are overflowing, but what is happening to the family table?

Social life is exploding. Mega-concerts, entertainment, holiday trips, second and third residences are fast multiplying while our idyllic harbours have become clogged parking lots for yachts and boats. Our roads are clogged by traffic with frustrated drivers caged in their useless, expensive luxury cars.

Life is fun. We seem to have it all. We are well served by a foreign slave industry doing our dirty, menial work, caring for our sick and elderly and doing our housekeeping so we can have fun.

But is this nirvana just skin-deep? We seem to have rediscovered our human skin – curating it, exposing or exploiting it for public admiration. Our bodies become just a painter’s canvas showing off overdone decorative tattoos in the hope of making ourselves more luring and attractive.

My big question is what has happened to our soul both on a personal, individual level and on a more collective, social level? How can we explain the increasing criminality, drug proliferation and addictions, rising number of youthful suicides, homelessness, marriage breakdowns, disturbed, lost and angry children, depressed and lonely people? We may think that now we have it all. But in fact, are we losing it all? What are we getting wrong?

I don’t dare suggest an answer. I can only reflect on one big shift in our way of life. As a society we are migrating from heart to skin, from substance to form, from spirit to matter, from soul to body. No, I am not speaking of religion or devotional spirituality. I am speaking of relationships – true, deep, free and lasting relationships.

Yes, we are losing our sense of belonging to each other. Relationships are simply evaporating into thin air. What matters is how I look and what I have – appearance, fashionable suit, career, house or villa. That is skin-deep, superficial existence, and life becomes a sad and lonely journey. Only a faithful and loving belonging to someone in a committed relationship gives meaning to our existence. Call it the soul, love, humanity or simply God.

When our beauty migrates from the soul to the skin, the body is reduced to just one big, hollow, empty shell. Empty vessels make most sound. And it is drowning life’s sweet music.

 

pchetcuti@gmail.com