Good afternoon, Warriors. Here it is, July already. It’s so hot outside that the very air is glowing with the heat reflecting from the desert ground. July. The month of Freedom and Independence. The very essence of what is being fought over in our city streets as we speak. It’s what is being fought over in our media. What we are fighting for in our very minds and in our hearts. It’s the very passion that powers that unnameable drive that is behind so much of what is happening in our world right now.
Freedom and Independence. It’s what has driven so much of our civilization’s history, collectively and individually: The Revolutionary War led by the Founding Fathers of our country, The Civil War, The Scottish War against England led by William Wallace and carried on by Robert the Bruce, World War I and II, any tribe or civilization who fought against the Romans, or any of an inexhaustible list of conflicts, both current and those lost to history. How about The Women’s Suffrage Movement, or slavery and the fight for equal rights for all people? Not close enough yet? Look at your personal relationships. How is your relationship with your family members? Look at your relationship (past and current) with your parents and compare it with the relationship with your children. Your spouse? How about your boss or coworkers? If you are in school, what is your relationship with your teachers like?
Even though I no longer have contact with my family, I recognize the blessings I gained from the years I spent with them, particularly my early years. Much of my knowledge of history comes from my maternal grandparents, especially. But my personal understanding of the issues of freedom and independence come from my relationships with my parents, and what they learned from their parents. It was learning from my interpersonal struggles and applying those lessons to what I learned from and about history that helped me gain the understanding I have now. It is that knowledge and understanding that, while frustrating, is allowing me to see past the surface and recognize the undercurrent of what is currently happening in our world.
I grew up in a very controlled environment. The only one of my primary family members who didn’t push control issues was my grandfather. My mother could have been considered one of the first “tiger moms,” and a “helicopter parent.” My father used to tell his friends that my sister and I were living in a “benevolent dictatorship.”, followed up with, “if he wanted our opinion, he “would give it to us.” My grandmother gave books (either educational or award-winning usually) on every occasion possible, and to her, education was all-important above all else.
I grew up in a house where everything was dictated. I was told the kinds of clothes I was going to wear, how many and what activities I was allowed to do and whether or not I was even allowed to go over to my best friend’s house. Being “grounded” didn’t just mean I couldn’t leave the house. It also meant I had no phone privileges (the phone calls I was allowed, were usually monitored by my mother), no music or tv privileges and no computer game privileges. I was given “what I needed”, and usually told what I wanted wasn’t going to happen. Those restrictions I just listed – that’s what I went through in high school. Some of the restrictions had eased up by then.
For years, I had to fight for my own sense of individuality, my own individual rights to live my own life and to make my own decisions. To succeed or fail on my own, and to learn to take responsibility for my own actions. That is what every great struggle ultimately comes down to – the struggle to make one’s own ideas work. Problems will inevitably rise, however, when an outside force, be it government, social reformers or family members, begin to try and dictate how you are going to live the ideas they think will work. And that is what we are watching in our streets and in our government right now. The same struggle for freedom and individuality against a backdrop of a power vacuum with everyone trying to take control for their own agenda.
One of the reasons I love dystopian movies so much is that they show what happens when a system of power and control takes over. They reflect my own individual struggle from my early years. And they show that no system of power and control will ever succeed. Our own human history shows that.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reading old quotes from historical leaders and documents. I have copies of The Declaration of Independence, The Citizens Rule Book, The Constitution of the United States of America, The Bill of Rights, The Magna Carte and The Gettysburg Address. I’ve meditated, prayed, read spiritual insights. I know that our society is in the middle of a massive upheaval. I know it’s necessary for our growth, socially, individually and Spiritually.
By whatever Faith or Religion you believe, whatever philosophy you live by, in all my readings I have only ever found one core truth. It’s the Spiritual Law ingrained within our very souls. The Spirit gave us free will. We can choose to do anything we want. The Law says we should do it with Love.
Love is the Law. Love under Will.
It’s your choice.
Blessed Be.
The Warriors Den 