A New Era
I come to all of life’s share croppers with the nth amount of due love & respect within the ‘struggle’(impoverishment & disenfranchisement). As the first decade in the 21st century has come to a close, I would like to share with you some thoughts on the departure of the last decade & the beginning of the present era.
I’ve always felt that life has a way of taking care of itself…in the last decade Americans have once again been reminded, that we are not indispensable, untouchable or infallible within the total scope of life & all that it embraces. It seems when individuals get too big for their pants, life reminds us of our mind set & obesity. It gives us lessons in sorrow, humility, integrity, self-worth in character, elemental needs of survival & a glimpse into the darker side of man himself. When life’s cistern becomes overwhelmed & needs to be relieved of its darkness…this is achieved by the ‘awakening’ of man himself so that light maybe shed upon the refuse he has created.
The past 10 yrs we’ve seen death & destruction within our shores. We’ve seen man & Mother Nature deal us lethal blows…our young Nation has wept, mourned & learned to embrace fear. The safe comfort zones that millions of Americans created for themselves saw an implosion within their infrastructure. The attack on the World Trade Center & Pentagon, two wars abroad in Afghanistan & Iraq, hurricanes Katrina & Rita, numerous tornados & floods, the collapse of our housing, industry & banking realms…the strain on our education, health care & social service sectors. Yes, life’s albatross visited America & left us with a crude & rude ‘awakening’. It has left Americans in what is known as ‘survival’ mode in the base of life’s pyramid.
As individuals in modern man’s pyramid & social structure we are all born as statistics…just another number in the population of the world. Yet, we have been reminded what a vital role we play in the total scope of life. So goes America, so goes the World. There is no corridor in the world that America has not graced its presence with. There is not a citizen in this country that has not been touched by the present disposition of our nation.
As individuals we are each a link in the chain of life. A vital link that can either strengthen or weaken the chain at any given place either partially or totally. When links in mass numbers are weakened the total chain loses its strength to only corrode & eventually snap in more than one realm & dimension. We look to the strongest links to fuse the chain of life again so its implementation may once again be vital in the mechanization of life’s total scope & portrait.
However, the strongest links have also fallen deeper into the chasms of their own weaknesses. As the Nation looks to politicians & corporations for reconstruction & reformation, they become disillusioned with an ‘American Dream’ that was authored & created by individuals in these very realms. Politicians who paint false portraits & use pretty little words on the campaign trail only to break promises once they reach our State & Federal Capitals, they suffer from bouts of self-imposed amnesia. Politicians who are so busy feasting at the banquets of corporations & lobbyists that their own obesity is becoming their own personal WMD. They have no time or desire to find new alloys to strengthen the weak links to make life’s chain once again complete & vital.
I have a word of caution for those who are so busy playing life’s ‘elite chess game’ that they fail to recognize the ‘weak links’ in life’s chain. I have always been a staunch believer in strength in numbers, along with collective knowledge & wisdom. As we have seen abroad since the beginning of this year, the isolated weak links within the chain have had their reason & purpose once again revealed to them. As the weak links pile up, they form a new chain steeled with resolve to take up the very mechanizations that the strong links have abused and abandoned.
To understand the survival mode of the elite, I went in search of past mental frame work that is applied today in various manners & means. A great deal of the wealth today is second & third generation inheritance, thus they cling to the achievements of their parent’s sacrifices & journey. Viewing their inherited wealth as a gift & individual property that they’re not accountable to in society through taxation, their role in the human race is left devoid of participation. They ride on the coat tails of those who had the strength to travel on life’s journey & leave something standing for tomorrow. They become bloated in materialism & self-gratification.
Within the base of life’s pyramid the majority have become complacent with government dependency & entitlements for their survival. Instead of combating their issues & weaknesses, they become comfortable as ‘mental pawns’ for those who have the courage to author the direction they would like to see life take. As individuals within impoverishment & disenfranchisement we have had our strength within our character, ingenuity & will suppressed to see life become stagnate & unproductive.
We can not rely on one individual whether he is a CEO or President to motivate or revive the American Dream & a way of life for the whole of the citizenry. We can no longer afford to be complacent with the rulings & agendas of those who only see statistics & not the total value of man himself. Once again, the citizenry must become a reliable, driving force for the direction they wish the country to travel in. We must not allow our journeys to be mapped out for us or the scenery of our course in life chosen for us. We must once again enforce individually our inalienable rights of equality & prosperity. We must once again find the strength to create our own portrait of the American Dream & our interpretation of the quality of life we should be able to enjoy.
The strength of our Nation was founded on the spirit, will & dreams of its common citizenry. On the commitments & sacrifices of common men with dreams & few resources to achieve them. Numerous small dreamers who collectively fought the tyranny within our shores from a ruler and forces abroad so that the true essence of freedom & a democracy would be an option that we could embrace freely. Common men, who focused on the quality of life they wanted their children to be able to experience.
Without risks & sacrifices there is no room for growth. Without self motivation & effort it isn’t possible to leave anything standing for tomorrow or a legacy behind. We must learn to crawl again before we walk and walk before we run a race to the finish line. The chains which presently sap our strength from their burdensome weight must be used for scrap metal to fuel our small dreams so that we may once again live instead of merely exist. We must take responsibility for those chains & realize that nobody can remove them for us, for others don’t always hold the key to the padlock.
We must once again realize that our life is not measured by what we don’t have at the beginning of the day, but what we have to show for the day & our existence when the sun sets. A little progress at the end of the day for our efforts is better than nothing at the beginning of the next day. Whether it comes from mowing a yard for several dollars or helping out another human being in distress, we must not allow life to best man. As individuals we are in control of our destiny…we are the only species on earth with the ability to bob and weave, to adapt & adopt, to build & destroy.
Once again we must reconstruct the journey of America and the Dream we wish to follow. Rebuild America and our lives from the ground up. This process does not have to be done as a solo flight, but can be done with more than one participant who also desires to move life once again in a positive direction. Other recessions & depressions have not seen the present longevity of its existence due to the ingenuity & collective efforts of our citizenry. Two or three individuals pooling their knowledge & resources to start a small business or provide a service to their community. Many individuals received severance packages when corporations were down sizing, yet they fail to invest in their own character or tomorrow. There was a time in this Nation when bartering & co-ops were the foundation for advancement. We need to resurrect some of the knowledge & wisdom of yesterday & apply it to the advancement of man today.
I personally miss the spirit & will of Americans, when we not only touched the lives of our neighbors, but the world at large. When the world envied us as individuals & our way of life. When we were the leader of the pack within wealth, education, industry & technology…now we have all we can do to run our leg in a relay race. I would give anything if Americans would tear down the walls of the prisons they’ve created for themselves & have faith once again in their own capabilities as individual citizens. We must once again as individuals support & encourage the efforts of the common man & small business owner. We need to generate our position for self-employment so that we no longer have to depend on the self anointed few who are on self-serving agendas for our survival. We can no longer embrace false portraits or dreams painted by others if we want to thrive again as individuals. I often ask men, ‘What would happen if men took all of their negative energy & converted it to positive power? How much life could we move then?’ It’s time we abandon negativity & create positive movement on our own. Those who create self-serving agendas, false portraits & negativity will be left with an abundance of nightmares.
The greatest WMD known to negativity is reverse psychology by man & the assault of positivity; it is a death sentence all of its own. In conclusion to these thoughts I share with you…I leave you with one of the greatest examples of human spirit & will power.
This year is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. A war for some which was fought to retain individual rights & for others a war which would emancipate all. I remind you of a time in our country when individuals were enslaved. When they were bought & sold as commodities throughout this nation. When individuals were whipped, beaten, raped, had their children & significant others sold. When they were suppressed & oppressed as individuals to only serve a master & their own reason & purpose in life was denied them by the genteel humans who held their lives in their hands. I leave you with a quote of mine…may you also learn to sing, dream & have faith in yourself & life once again.
‘They sang on the way to the fields, the drying sheds, smoke houses, plantation houses & cabins…they even sang under the lash’.
I leave you as I came with a great deal of love & respect for life itself….
Lady Gray
