麻豆社

This week I heard a heart-warming song titled 鈥楾eam of Two鈥� about caring for someone living with a disability, written by a band called The Tailormade and released to mark this year鈥檚 Carers Week. The song draws on a speech given by Marie Nixon in 2018 when she won the MS Carer of the Year Award. Marie, a carer for her husband, Stuart Nixon who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, said 鈥榶ou get up, you get on with it, it鈥檚 just what we do鈥�.

According to Carers UK, 1 in 8 adults, around 6.5 million people, are unpaid carers. I have such admirations for carers. They are truly the unsung heroes of society; for the most part, they work silently, with love, with patience and compassion, and without expectation of reward or recognition.

The Sikh Gurus made the act of selfless service, called sewa, one of the central tenets of the Sikh religion. Sewa mandates a complete dedication to giving without expecting any material or spiritual reward in return. Such service cultivates qualities such as altruism, commitment, and sincerity. According to the faith those individuals who serve with humility and without any desire for reward achieve the ultimate union with God.

For me carers embody this act of sewa more than anybody. However, they need help especially in the current period of austerity. Carer organisations report a lack of relief carers, and say many young carers are invisible to the system and receive no support. This means they can often struggle in silence, with many suffering mental or physical health problems as a result.

But, it is going to take a lot more than money to alleviate the pressures on carers.

The Sikh teaching of sewa, like many other religious and ethical traditions encourages notions of 鈥淏ig Society鈥� and social engagement. Maybe we all need to take responsibility and inspiration from carers, and ask ourselves some difficult questions. Can we make some selfless sacrifices of our own to help others who find themselves in a position of having to care for a loved one? Help could simply be in the form of spending an hour with a neighbour while their carer takes a break or as an employer allowing some additional flexibility to employees who also have caring responsibilities.

I believe a strong society is dependent on acts of self-sacrifice. It requires a change in mind-set from asking 鈥檞hat鈥檚 in it for me鈥� to saying 鈥榠t鈥檚 just what we do.鈥�

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