A step to freedom

Dear Friends -

I've had an excellent day. I read and wrote most of the day in the quiet of a windy, snowy, and (thanks to Pete sending us his Omaha weather) cold day. This evening, I went to a Masonic lodge meeting, where some "degree work" was skillfully done. I made a little presentation to a brother who has helped me enormously in the past couple of months, a book (naturally). That may sound like a hidebound institution, but the moral teaching is beautiful and beautifully done.

I also finished Bloodthirsty Bitches this afternoon, a new social commentary by Gerry Spence. He talks unashamedly about Justice and Right and even Love, and that is a freeing thing that I've been thinking about all day.

Since starting this blog in the midst of personal crises in November, I have been beset by the spectre of self-doubt, and self-criticism. I reject that tonight. I have been appalled by some of the anti-empathetic responses to Schell's challenges. In the midst of the day, I figured out that I don't have to accept the negativity. I don't have to write here to please anyone. I can say what I will - it may be ill-informed, it may be poorly-written, but it will always be truthful, and true to my values. This afternoon, I intercepted a nasty comment to a post in this blog - and decided that I'm not obligated to accept that negativity, either. I rejected the comment, and here in this place will continue to think values, nothing else. Part of my values are that I am a Boy Scout still. I am a conservationist. I am a liberal. I am a Mason. I know the cry of the child and feel the power of God, and I'll no longer apologize for any of that.

Tonight, maybe just for tonight, I'm free. I'm free to say what I will, to write what I will. I'm free to listen and consider what I will - and when the tone is bad, I'm free to reject it. This social contract of ours is not a moral suicide pact. What does not serve us, or challenge us, we can turn away from. We are all free. We can defy the corporate Kings who dominate us. We can have genuine concern, genuine communication, genuine understanding. As Lincoln said, we have the power, and we must bear the responsibility. It's up to us.

And now, to learn how to use this freedom . . .

Mizpah!

R