I was reminded last night of how our response to negatives can induce similar internalization. This is not new. We have known about external influences on our behavior for a long time. We have, however, as a society become so used to the banal, the false, the spun, the superficial, that we have adapted a pathetic dummied-down numbness to the truth. This is most apparent every four years as politicians attempt to buy our votes. Sometimes I cringe wondering how these stuffed-shirt spokesmen for big business can address the innocent of America with straight faces. I can only speak for myself and this is what I want from my government: NOTHING.
I don't want to have blood on my hands from the slaughter of civilians who happen to pray to a different God.
I do not want to further enrich a handful of industrialists who profit from war.
I do not want to see women told what they can or can not do with their bodies.
I do not want the same industrialists spoiling the beauty of our planet for money.
I do not want lunatics buying automatic weapons.
I do not care for farm subsidies, feeding corn to cows and starving the poor who can now afford neither.
I do not want to be forced to own an insurance policy.
I do not want my phone tapped.
I do not want to be fingerprinted, sampled, stereotyped, or profiled.
I do not want to be taxed until I work more for a bureaucracy than for my family.
I want a level playing field.
I want fairness.
Corporations are not people.
They are in business to make money, we are in business to make life.
Stop trying to control and start trying to cooperate.
I want nothing from you. Keep your power, greed and corruption, just let me be. Not more hallow rhetoric, nor empty promises, no fear mongering, nothing. Leave me alone. I will be fine. Please give me the opportunity to pursue the freedoms that I cherish most: life, liberty and chasing my own personal vision of happiness. You are not leading, you are not even following, so please get the heck out of my way.
Grant me this and you have my vote.
On a (perhaps) lighter note. The following passage caught my attention last night and prompted the above oratory:
Flexibility is the essential quality inherent in all spiritual attitudes, including forgiveness, compassion, empathy, renunciation, humility, faith and hope. To be flexible is to bend like a branch in the wind. It is the ability to accept reality as it is.
Following then, is my prayer for this spectacular fall Sunday, after we danced a splendid 9 miles through the crisp morning light:
My I, may my friends, may my enemies and may all beings,
be happy,
be peaceful,
and be free.
Cary on.
Pix: Me & Frankie in practice. Our waterside campsite in Penticton, our last trip there.
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