If our new presidential administration has shown us anything, it’s that each of us has phenomenal power that we’re not using because we think there are limits while someone else does not. Instead, we abridge our own rights and wait for that “someone else” to give us permission to act or speak. What else is possible I wonder? How does it get better than this?
I’m guessing most (at least white) Americans take for granted our civil liberties, including the right to free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, the right to be free of unwarranted search and seizure, and more. Yet, these days, as I worry that those rights will be taken away by a hostile government (exactly the kind of government behavior the Constitution is intended to protect against), I find myself increasingly speaking through private back channels instead of public, getting off social media, try not to have my picture taken at protests, etc.
And then I realized, I’m the one “abridging” my own rights. And if I’m doing that, then I’m my own enemy regardless of what anyone else is “allowing.”
As I reflect, I notice that this is a long-standing pattern with me: instead of standing up for myself and using the power that I’ve been given, when I’m afraid, I give my power away willingly. I decide that whatever I want to do, say, or be is too dangerous, too big, too much. So I start to curtail or pull back so that I don’t have to risk having YOU tell me that instead.
So here’s a clearing question: everywhere you’ve believed, subscribed to, or bought that you are too dangerous, too big, too much, and so you’ve toned down, shut up, and laid low to avoid perceived danger, are you willing to destroy and uncreate that all right now?
If so, please say “yes” aloud — and maybe also the Access Consciousness Clearing Statement: “right and wrong, good and bad, POD and POC, all 100, shorts, boys, POVADs, creations, bases, and beyond” — or not, because it sounds like hocus pocus and its too weird (but wait, that’s just an example of what I’m talking about — if you don’t say or do something someone you trust is suggestion you say or do, just because it sounds too “weird,” isn’t that you abridging your own rights and power? — That’s a high school reaction not a grown-up point of view. If it feels light and expansive to you to say weird things, who cares if you don’t understand them? Understanding can be the booby prize.
Just for today, consider saying what you want to say and doing what you want to do, as long it is nonviolent and in alignment with a vision of a world that works for everyone.
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