freedom – Notes from the Woods

Defying the Darkness

Sometimes we joy-warriors have to bite our tongues. To give voice to some of our thoughts and observations would go against our creed. Nevertheless, I must confess that we are not immune to the atmosphere of the times; we have our hours of darkness, too.

It’s impossible not to see the destructive forces at play in the world, not to see the confusion, the conflict, and the suffering they produce. But it’s not impossible to withstand them. The key is to realize that to fall into misery yourself is to feed them, to become their victim.

Once you grasp that, you instantly transcend their assault. You take from them all their power. You claim your right to feel joy, to be grateful for life whatever it brings. And you always have that choice. It’s always there. You can give in or stand up. And however much effort it takes to stand, once you choose to do so, to defy the temptation to surrender, you will immediately know that you have won.

It’s a very freeing thing to claim your human dignity. Even if tears of compassion and grief flow from your eyes like rivers as you stand, once you stand, you are free. You are free to embrace life, just as you find it, and to look beyond the flotsam of the darkness to the broad and shining sea of possibilities that is life itself. You’re free to hope, and to trust. You’re free to laugh, even if it’s a laugh of defiance. You’re free to dance and to sing, and to be kind and brave and strong.

And you can be all these things no matter how confining your circumstances. Freedom is a choice, a expression of will, a determination not to bow to self-pity.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t feel sadness or sorrow. It just means you will not allow them to overwhelm you. You give them an appropriate space. You limit their expression to an appropriate time.

Nor does it mean you can’t feel anger at the injustices of life. But anger, too, must be bridled by self-control, used as a fuel to right what wrongs it is within your power to correct–efficiently, and intelligently.

No matter how painful any circumstance may be, every moment also contains its beauty and its goodness. It’s simply a matter of broadening your vision, of seeing things from a higher view.

Discouragement is alluring. It’s a tool of the darkness that aims to pull you into despair. Remember the key; choose not to feed it. Resolve to claim your power to be free.

Much warmth,
Susan

_{Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay}

The American Way

Every July 4^th, when I was a teen, I’d sprawl on our living room floor and read the Declaration of Independence. It was something important to us in those days. It was a kind of sacred national document.

Back then, we studied our founding documents. We talked about what they meant. They made us proud; they gave us a sense of purpose. We believed that the liberty and justice they described was intended for all, that we, as a diverse people, coming together from all the corners of the earth, were at work creating a nation that exemplified the best of humankind. We sang “America the Beautiful” as if it was our national hymn.

It was a different world back then. TV was new to homes and it didn’t stay on 24 hours a day. It signed off at night with an inspirational verse, or a clip of an fighter plane soaring through the sky while the Air Force Hymn played, or a ship plowing through the sea as the Navy choir sang “Anchors Aweigh. Finally, an inspirational picture of the American flag blowing in the wind filled the screen while the national anthem played. And with that in our minds, we went to bed.

At school, we were taught that our flag meant something, too. It stood for freedom. Every classroom had one standing at the front of the room. Before our classes began, we would stand together facing it, our hands over our hearts, as we repeated the pledge of allegiance. We were proud to do that, and honored to be Americans. We didn’t take the privilege lightly. Men and women had given their lives, after all, so that we could be free.

We learned what freedom meant. We had neighbors who spoke to each other in languages we couldn’t understand, but who talked to us and to our parents in English. They would tell us what it was like not to be free, to have to hide your ideas, guard your speech, keep your cultural heritage, your literature and music, your customs, your religious beliefs and celebrations, a secret or face terrible punishments, maybe even death. That’s why they came here. That’s why they respected the beliefs and ideas of others, and why we children were taught to respect differences, too.

We didn’t go around screaming for diversity and tolerance. We were diverse. We looked at the cultures and customs of other nationalities and races with interest and fascination, as wonderful expressions of the human race, as something to be appreciated, even as we appreciated our own.

People could get into heated arguments over their ideas. But they seldom came to blows. And if they did, once they had cooled down, they apologized to each other and went on being neighbors or co-workers or friends, The motto everyone abided by was “I might disagree with what you are saying, but I will fight for your right to say it.” It was the motto that everyone knew. We were taught that freedom of speech was an unalienable right. We understood that listening to the ideas of others expanded and deepened our own thinking and could open our minds to fresh ways of seeing things.

Back then, we had heroes who stood for our ideals, too. Superman would fly across the screen of our black and white TV sets while his theme song played and a strong, deep voice proclaimed that he fought for “truth, justice, and the American way.”

The American way meant that everybody was free to become the best person he or she could be. A man or woman could set a goal and work toward its achievement in any way that didn’t step on another person’s freedom. We valued initiative, inventiveness, ambition, and hard work.

In my heart, I believe the majority of us still feel that way. But over the past couple of decades,insidious forces have been at work to undermine our reverence for our nation and to assail the ideals for which it stands. These forces have infiltrated our media, our entertainment, our educational, legal, and governmental systems. Knowing that division weakens us, they have sought to divide us by religion, race, sex, political affiliation and class. They have set us at odds with each other and created an atmosphere of hostility and fear.

And the time has come for us to stand. The time has come for us to rededicate ourselves to this precious Republic and to the values for which it stands—for freedom, for brotherhood, for prosperity and security for all. It’s time for us to determine to be a force for good in the world, to shine the light of freedom across the globe.

From a joy-warrior’s point of view, that means we need to make a renewed dedication to focusing on the things that bring harmony and thriving to our personal spheres. We need to look for the goodness and beauty and truth around us, and to speak it, and live it as fully as we can, in whatever ways we can. We need to remember that we are all in this world together. We’re all a part of the human family. And each us can choose to strive to be our very best. For me, that, truly, is the American way.

A Word About Freedom

“No power so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.”
— Edmund Burke

I want to talk with you about fear today–the one we’re being programmed to adopt because of the COVID-19 virus.

I’m not at all in the mood to write my usual encouraging piece, except to encourage you to wake up and realize that our freedom is being taken from us. And if our freedom goes, here in the United States, it goes for everyone, world wide. It’s time to stand up and reclaim our lives and our liberty. It’s time to open our factories and businesses and stores, to resume our social interactions. It’s time to demand our freedom.

This is no longer about a virus, and perhaps it never was. But that’s a topic for another day.

For now, let’s just look at the facts that contradict the narrative we’re being sold.

The virus kills less than 1% of the people who are affected by it, and between 30-50% of those who have died with it are elderly with underlying medical conditions, living in nursing homes.The risk is far less than that posed by the ordinary seasonal flu and yet we’re allowing ourselves to be imprisoned in our homes as if contacting each other poses a life-threatening risk.

In Ventura, California,where a total of 19 people have died, teams of up to 20,000 workers are being assembled that will go home-to-home testing everyone for the virus. If you test positive, and if you live in a home where you share a bathroom or any other room with another family member, you will be forcibly taken away and quarantined “in other kinds of places we have available” under the team’s watchful eye with daily visits. They will question all who test positive to determine the names of anyone they may have contacted in the last two weeks, and those people will be tested and quarantined , too, if they happen to test positive.

And how reliable are these tests? This week, samples of tissues taken from a paw-paw fruit and from a goat were given human names and sent to a lab for testing. Guess what? They tested positive. A fruit, for God’s sake! And on the basis of this test, you, or your wife or husband or child could be forcefully removed from your home.

We are told we must wear masks, in case we might cough and contaminate everything around us. You might think your cough is an allergy or a response to some nearby odor, the argument goes, but many who have the virus are “asymptomatic.” They show no signs yet of being sick and still may have the virus. Or they were previously ill and recovered, but could still be shedding the virus. Maybe. We wouldn’t want to take any chances. So if you do not wear a mask, you could be fined or jailed. Even if you’re in the wide open spaces of a park with no one within 20 feet of you. Even though the masks are easily penetrated by the virus. Even though they cut down on the oxygen available for you to breathe. Even though most people end up touching them frequently and often wear the same mask repeatedly.

It makes absolutely no sense at all. It’s irrational, and nothing more, at this point, than an effort to train you to comply with authority, even though that authority is acting illegally and, as the courts themselves have rules, in violation of your essential constitutional rights.

“But we have to be safe!” you might argue. From what? From the potential of contracting an illness that, while unpleasant, to be sure, is far less threatening to your life than the flu to which you have been exposed every single year of your life. And for this, we will put a third of our work force out of work, forcing people into bread lines, causing them to lose their businesses and life-savings, their retirement accounts, and their homes?

Some will continue to be afraid and will argue that associating with each other as we did mere weeks ago could cause infections to increase. The fear-mongering has been incessant after all. Let’s compromise with them. Let’s put aside arguments in favor of building immunity through exposure. Let’s allow those who believe it wise to wear masks and keep their distance from each other do so. But let’s allow those who choose to mingle freely, turning their bare faces to the sun, breathing in fresh air, to live as they decide as well.

I saw a sign at a protest this week that said, “My freedom doesn’t end where your fear beings.” And I must second that notion. I agree with Ben Franklin: “Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety” and are bound to lose both.