Except for fireworks disturbing my sleep in the early morning hours, July Fourth has always been a joyful time to celebrate the beginnings of a great idea that people have the freedom to choose for themselves how to live and to select leaders who support them.
I celebrate the earliest Americans being free of a distant monarch taxing them without their input or legal consent. Even considering our flaws, I’d still rather live in a democracy where people have some control over their own destinies than an authoritarian state where choices are made for them by some oligarch or dictator.
Of course, freedom is neither easy nor guaranteed. It takes vigilance, hard work and revolutionary patience to remain free. Sometimes freedom becomes too hard to handle, and people give up and let someone else take over. That takeover lasts decades, centuries, sometimes never departing, until democracy itself dies.
I also celebrate July Fourth because of my family history. My father was a naturalized citizen who happened to be born in Baltimore during one of my grandfather’s American speaking tours. Every July Fourth he celebrated his American citizenship with a deep sense of gratitude for living and working here most of his life.
Had my father not been born here, my life would have completely changed. I would have been a British citizen, had a different mother and never been a Phillies fan. Of course, I was a mistake born as the last of five children to an older mother. I see this positively realizing that no matter what I do or say, it’s still better than not being here at all. The fact that I was unplanned rippled throughout my life, until I finally understood the gift given to me was life itself.
As a core truth I understand that all life is interconnected, that what happens to a part of the whole happens to every other part as well. The circle of life is the most basic metaphor of all.
Labels are for clothes and politics but not applied fairly to people, so be careful what you call me — globalist, internationalist, or whatever tag you choose. But I can’t deny what my life experiences, reason, and science tell me — life from the tiniest cells to the furthest reaches of the cosmos is connected in ways intricately bound together in the dance of life.
This means that whatever I say or do has a ripple effect. What comes around goes around, in other words. The same principle applies not only to individuals but whole societies, even the planet itself.
It all begins with what you think. Consider the wisdom of 19th-century essayist and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”
These are wise, practical words of wisdom for individuals or societies. Individually, your thoughts lead to your actions, then to habits, and finally character and destiny.
Cast a wider net on Emerson’s understanding of the interrelatedness of life to include nations, the world, even the universe.
If we as a nation think we are alone and isolated then that is how we will act. But we are neither alone nor isolated. Like it or not, we live in a world economy. If you doubt this, look at the labels on your clothes or even where the parts are to fix your car or cellphone. I once asked students to do so and only two out of 20 said their clothes were made in the U.S.
Or, consider world politics. One nation attacks another, and wars multiply beyond their borders. Another country ignores environmental rules and the dire consequences spill beyond its land.
Here’s the dilemma we face as individuals, nations and the world. What do we do to avoid the catastrophes that will follow from narrow thoughts and selfish policies?
As individuals we can think before acting, realizing there are consequences to our actions, some good and some bad, and a number of them unintended however good our intentions. Tread lightly, examine your thoughts carefully, then go calmly into the emerging night. The simple basic strategy applies to nations.
Here is a basic strategy for living well as individuals or societies. Think before acting. Choose wisely. Practice what yields the good results wanted for the greatest number of people. Keep calm and focused as you move toward your best future.
John C. Morgan is an author and teacher. (drjcm1776@yahoo.com)
