Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
Let me start out by saying I am neither politician or politically driven, the thought of either one leaves a horrid taste in my mouth.
I heard the old saying today “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, and started thinking about that.
Now, I have to assume that when the Declaration, while being penned by Thomas Jefferson, every word was carefully weighed and measured. That he wrote, and re-wrote, adjusted and modified each word and sentence for maximum meaning and effect. On top of that it was reviewed and edited thereafter, until the perfect phrasing of the Declaration of the Independence of the United States of America was reached. To that end, I give you the entire sentence that contains, the so often quoted “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Of course I present this to you for a reason. I want to break down these words to try and more deeply understand the authors meaning. These are my personal observations, nothing more.
We hold these truths to be self-evident – Simply stated; Jefferson was saying that it should be obvious that there are things in this world that are True, no matter what. That there are a few things in life that are truly Black and White, and no matter how someone might twist them, you can always fall back on that knowledge.
that all men are created equal – The Color of my skin, my sex, my age – everything that I was given at the time I was given life is mine, and is the basis of who I am, but that does not place me above or below any other human on this planet. The choices I make from that moment on are done by my free will and will determine who I become in life. This was a statement that not even the signers fully understood, but would later lead to a war, which in the end would allow black men and women to walk freely on this land. The same statement would hold true for women’s right to vote. The statements, which to this day, is not fully understood.
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights – The fact that the writer acknowledges a creator in this statement tells me that he/they understood that what we have, all that we are, was given by a grater being. That Creator, later named as God, endowed each and every one of us specific undeniable rights. Things that man was given the physical ability, but not the right to take away.
that among these are – This just says that they are only part of the Unalienable Rights, there are more, but these are fundamental to the foundation of our Nation.
Life – First on the List is Life, that is particularly important in the fact that it was placed above all other unalienable rights. The right to life is first and foremost on the minds of the founding fathers. Undeniably they recognized the fact that, without the right to life all other rights have no meaning what so ever.
Liberty – Freedom, this is another basic right to every beating heart brought into this world. None should ever be oppressed, or restricted from forming their own belief systems, weather that be based on the teachings of others, or from one’s own self study
and the pursuit of Happiness – I find it interesting that the words “Pursuit of” were added here. We are not guaranteed Happiness, just that we can chase it to our hearts content. Also placement matters here. We are invited, as Americans to chase our dreams, so long as it’s not at the cost of Life or Liberty.
Three things listed, not a big list, but one that appears to be very confusing for many people. Primarily the ones to believe they have the right to be happy no matter the cost to those around them, or those who place their idea of personal happiness above others unalienable right to life of others.
In all things done on a governmental level we need to consider these things first.
Does it affect life? Not the quality of life, but life itself. Does it cause a heart to stop beating? If the answer is yes then it should not be dropped. If the answer is no then we consider the fact of if it restricts our Liberty, and the same, of the answer is no, then we weigh the idea of it, whatever it may be, restricting us from perusing Happiness.
God Bless you today, and every day.
Face to Face with a Badger
Driving down an old dusty gravel road in a beat up pickup truck, I look out the driver side window to see two trees that seem to have grown together a few feet above the ground. Between the two trees is a door, attached to the trees themselves, as if they were grown to be the frame. As I was traveling quit fast down the road, I had to slam on my breaks and skidded for some distance before coming to a stop. I put the Pickup in reverse and backed up to the tree, parked and got out. I had to see what was on the other side of the door.
As I approached the tree I noticed a hole in the base of the tree on the left. As if a very large root had grown above ground and then been cut off to reveal a hollow tunnel into the tree. Large enough for a full grown man, like myself, to comfortably crawl into on all fours. I thought to myself “that’s a badger hole, better stay away” but found myself continuing to look inside of a second longer. At that same instant a badger came rolling around a bend in the tunnel. He was all rolled up like an armadillo or Sonic the Hedgehog, and really truly rolling at me, very fast, yet somehow I had time to run back to the truck and grab a bed pillow out of the back and run back to the tree. In that time the tunnel entrance had changed shape to more of a slit, a few inches wide and about two and a half feet tall. All though it did not appear so, I knew the badger could still fit through the hole, so I tried to block it up with the bed pillow. I thought to myself “that’s dumb, it’s a pillow that badger will just tear right through it”. But he didn’t, he instead was able to get his head and one arm through the gap above the pillow and he was MAD. I was freaking out, it’s a badger, this thing is going to tear me to pieces and at the same time it came all the way through the tiny hole where its head and arm would only fit a moment ago. Heart racing, in a panic I made a split second decision, if I was lucky enough I might be able to buy a couple of seconds of time to get away. My hand shot out, and I grabbed the badger by the scruff of the neck and flung it back over my shoulder, planning to run to the door and put it between the badger and myself. Just before I ran I glanced back over my shoulder to see the last instant of the beasts flight, somehow it had rolled itself up again, and shrunk to about the size of a baseball and landed in a green 5 gallon bucket inside my garage. I thought to myself “He is going to be really pissed, I have to get out of here” That’s when my wife woke me up, only to find I had been dreaming.
