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Category: Holidays / Topics: Personal Issues Values

A Declaration of Independence

by Dan Seagren

Posted: June 29, 2014

Declarations of independence are not only made in July, but…

Interestingly, declarations of independence are not only made in July. They are made regularly, by little ones and seniors, male and female, rich and poor. But maybe July 4th is a good reminder about the its value. There are many aspects of our lives that we can live better without. Just as our early Colonists felt they could live better without the British hovering over them, so could we live better without certain pressures hovering over us.

Maybe this is close to our January resolutions tradition except that implied is the need for doing something good perhaps even out of the ordinary. But when should this begin. This spirit of independence? I'm not really sure but let me give you an example. When our son was six months old, he exhibited a spirit of independence by scaring his parents with his let's say spontaneous temper tantrums.

He would out of the blue lie on the floor or elsewhere and pound his little head on the floor until we would pick him up, cuddle him tightly in our arms until he would settle down. What caused this out-of-the-blue phenomenon we never knew until later when he could tell us what his problem was. Yes, he outgrew it, but like so many of us, it can lurk deeply within us and can be triggered until we discipline ourselves to not let it dominate us.

So, if we have an unbridled temper, a lust for the forbidden, or a treacherous curiosity, a declaration of independence could be in order. Beyond that, we might have to seek for some things that need to be declared off limits. There are times when we may need to be declare independent of certain friends or acquaintances who are possibly detrimental to our best interests. And on and on we could go sometimes.

On the other hand, how often do we declare independence from that which is not fickle or harmful but redundant, perhaps. Maybe we are unaware of how many texts we send vs. how few conversations we have. Or that inadvertently we unleash our cell phones at inappropriate times. Or that we spend an inordinate amount of time playing games on our tablets or munching overtime on fattening foods or trying to get away with athletic fouling. Or faking illness to miss school, work or play.

What if those early Colonists had capitulated to the tyranny they disliked and there was no Declaration of Independence? We could only hope another cause would have created a Fourth of July event, right?



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Dan Seagren is an active retiree whose writings reflect his life as a Pastor, author of several books, and service as a Chaplain in a Covenant Retirement Community.

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Posted: June 29, 2014   Accessed 154 times

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