My posting yesterday challenged us to know thyself and live
accordingly. It advocated a continual personal exploration and self discovery.
And it exhorted us to apply those discoveries to living life as fully as possible.
Today I want to touch on what happens when we don’t live by
the opening paragraph.
John Lennon was a realist and he shared this thought with
us:
“We live in a world where we have
to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.”
I’m not suggesting public indecency, but love is a more
decent human activity than violence yet his observation is true – we often hide
valuable aspects of life and allow the hideous to occur in the open. I know we
don’t want it this way, but what are we doing to change the reality? What is
the cause of violence? Greed? Self-centeredness? Do we seek to change why
violence occurs rather than treating the symptoms with more police protection
or better insurance coverage? Wouldn't it be better if we encouraged a kinder,
gentler soul to be on parade? Public
displays of affection are often scorned. Social sensitivities are touchy on
this subject. Why? Why that and not gun violence, or bullying, or any of a
dozen other behaviors?
Freedom. Personal freedom has limits to its expression. They
are socially assigned limits, usually ruled by ‘good taste’. Yet we have
trouble taking action on the heavier freedoms for fear…of what exactly? Last I checked gun slinging in America died
with the Old West. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not arguing the second amendment
topic. I’m just remarking that violent behavior in our nation gets more of a
‘pass’ than matter of bad taste. Last I checked, bad taste was still left up to
the individual.
John Trudell made this statement:
“I’m just a human being trying to
make it in a world that is very rapidly losing its understanding of being
human.”
Understanding being human. A baseline of our existence. Are
we respected? Do we respect ourselves? Are we taking charge of our own life? Is
family supportive of these efforts? How do we allow each other the freedom to
explore the inner self and make decisions based on our findings? Or do we label
the person as ‘delusional’ or ‘pie in the sky’ thinker?
It is good to dream of possibilities, the future, whatever
fuels our imagination. It is a stretching of the inner self and prepares a call
only we can hear and answer. The question is, do we allow ourselves this
freedom? Are we supportive of others to make such a commitment on their own? Or
do we pooh pooh such efforts?
It is human to ponder ideas. It is creative to match ideas
with other ideas. It is courageous to seek new interests, new jobs, new
frontiers to fuel our sense of the future.
If this is good, and I think it is, we must determine if our
public institutions and social networks are supportive of this work. Are schools helping students take charge of
their lives and guide them down their individual path? Next time you talk with
a teacher perhaps you should ask that question. Does the teacher feel supported
in such professional efforts with his or her students? This may be a starting
point to insure your kids are getting the kind of education that will fuel a
life time of exploration and discovery.
June 14, 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment