Napoleon was involved in a conversation with a colonel of a Hungarian battalion who had been taken prisoner in Italy. The colonel mentioned he had fought in the army of Maria Theresa. “You must have a few years under your belt!” exclaimed Napoleon. “I’m sure I’ve lived sixty or seventy years,” replied the colonel. “You mean to say,” Napoleon continued, “you have not kept track of the years you have lived?”
The colonel promptly replied, “Sir, I always count my money, my shirts, and my horses—but as for my years, I know nobody who wants to steal them, and I shall surely never lose them.” The colonel was indifferent to anything that could not be stolen, in other words he had no interest in or concern about those things.
I know very few people who do not know the very day that they were born. In my case I celebrated my birthday the day after I was born because my mother thought that I was born after midnight but when I received my Birth certificate, the doctor reported that I was born just before midnight. One day seems inconsequential but it affected those celebrations from then on.
Indifference is a lack of interest or concern, and we are all indifferent to various things that do not attract our attention. Someone has said; “There is no pulse in indifference; but skepticism may have warm blood.” Elie Wiesel stated that “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death it is indifference.” (Readers Digest, April 2016)
A bright and alert student of life and things would hardly be indifferent to anything. When we contemplate the beauty of this earth and the activity it sponsors, how can one sleep, let alone be indifferent to the contrasting geography of our mother earth. When it comes to religion a large percentage of people claim to be members or practitioners of one world religion or another. Many are skeptical and absentee practitioners but their claim to that association is apparently important to them. Someone has claimed that to be Indifferent to religion is more fatal than to have skepticism of it.
People need people, family and friends even another that makes them number one, we need companionship. We need to know that we have value in the sight of others or we begin to fade. By that I mean our blossoming falls away, our color drains from our faces our eyes become dull and transparent, our physique will shrink.
Tonny K. Brown: To be treated with indifference is the greatest tragedy a Human Soul can suffer. Even to be mistreated is better than to be ignored (treated indifferently).
Years ago I served as a counselor for the City Social Services Department. One evening I sat with a woman who had a rather obvious black eye. She said her family had advised her, even plead with her, to leave this man she was living with before he killed her. I asked her if she were planning to take the advice of her family? She said, That she had no place else to go and that he at least loved her enough to beat her. She in a sense said, ‘Even though this man is cruel, at least he is not indifferent.’ May God bless us to learn to love as the Savior advised; “Love one another as I have loved you.” If you see one who is fading, please, don’t you be indifferent too.