I was taught exclusivity growing up, one man, one woman, one
family, one united and unique group that no one else could penetrate except by
very precise rituals under very stringent conditions.
I was taught to think and to question, but only within a
certain framework. Anything outside
that was dangerous, forbidden, bad.
It was a fear-based culture whose premises centered on
control. One small cog out of step with
the whole and the entire machine locked up.
The key to it all was love, but that love was conditional from the top
right on down. Instead of being the
warm rushing river I know now that it can be, it was the stern, unyielding
shell that promises the river but never quite produces it.
There are really only two ways of dealing with that kind of
situation. You conform, or you
leave. Many in my generation left to
the utter dismay and confusion of our families. Others were sent away.
Nursing homes sprung up to care for the deserted. Welfare systems blossomed with the
discarded. Travel and money became the
new goals of those who would never receive a gold watch. Chaos reigned.
Change is like a yo-yo.
It bounces way out in one direction then way out in the opposite
one. For each action there is an equal
and opposite reaction. Everyone scurries
around trying to figure out what to do when freedom rings and everyone has
their own idea. If they don’t there are
plenty of people ready to teach them an idea.
“Four legs good, two legs bad.”
Beware of simplicity!
One size does not fit all.
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether
(our) nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, (to the ideals we
profess to care about) can long endure.”
Exclusivity still reigns, disguised in a million little
facades, but there is no turning back.
Maturation is a relentless force and these are the adolescent years of a
powerful and dangerous people.
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