Personal Meditation No. 14

“You can’t outsource freedom.”

Embrace the Within.

How was your Memorial Day? Did you spend it being free?

One of the things I was told when I was a kid and continues to now is that someone else died to give me something. It starts out with the patriots in school that died for your freedom and then you get the same deal in church with Christ dying for forgiveness. That’s not an expectation I put upon either one of these folks but it is now my responsibility.

Their action becomes my responsibility because of how the human mind is wired for reciprocity. When folks come along peddling whatever they’re selling, a good way to get you on the hook is if they give you something. You never asked for the thing and the thing could be completely worthless to you. But they gave it to you so now you feel like you owe them.

So these people died to give me something, something that is intangible also, and now I owe them. Why? I didn’t ask them to do that. I don’t want them to do that. But they did it and here we are. Kind of ludicrous.

The brain isn’t set up to be your friend most of the time. So you end up being stuck holding the intangible patriotism bag or religion bag because they gave it to you. The best part of the bag is the intangibility. You’re carrying an imaginary bag in your mind . . . You didn’t even get anything that can slice and dice. You didn’t get a pamphlet. You didn’t get a hot dog and a handshake. Ya go nothing.

It is nice to think that some soldier was thinking about me when he made his last hurrah but he was probably thinking, “oh shit”. It’s nice to think that gods send their sons to die for me or something but let’s be realistic. Those are metaphors for the Hero’s Journey we all must take.

So, stop letting people give you imaginary things to carry around? And stop burdening your kids with all that stuff? Life is tough enough without having to carry the weight of intangible gifts. Isn’t it enough to just work on being decent? That seems like a difficult enough task for most people already. Let’s not go adding contracts with dead people. The living are enough to handle for now.

I hope you find whatever you are looking for. Have the day you want.

@embrace_within or Check out the site at https://edatdoc.wixsite.com/my-site

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