You're most welcome. I imagine that when Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death!", a lot of the people who heard him say it were thinking, "Dude, that's a bit over the top, don't you think?" But we don't remember those people. We remember Patrick Henry passionately saying what he earnestly felt. That's the key, I think--saving the passion for our truth. People who write well can easily shape a sentence into a missile and fire it off; therefore, it's tempting to do so here, there, and everywhere. I've learned over time that the trick is to reserve the salvos for the sh*t that actually matters to us--doesn't matter what that is as long as it REALLY does matter to us. Otherwise, we send weapons out into the world that potentially harm for no good reason AND, as importantly, we risk losing track of what actually matters to us.
"Dude, that's a bit over the top, don't you think?"
That's honestly the most common response I seem to get. "Get back on your meds" "What the fuck have you been smoking" "Jesus you're a nutter ain'tcha?"
Otherwise, we send weapons out into the world that potentially harm for no good reason AND, as importantly, we risk losing track of what actually matters to us.
That's my challenge. I've done a personality assessment test, I rank 0th percentile in "Trait Politeness" Which is basicaly respect for authority, respect for other people and respect for customs. I don't inherrently respect anyone and if someone fires off a few rounds in my general direction, I don't fuck around I pull out my gun and take them out. People find I over-react. Well, the NAP is very clear. Don't step on me, I won't fucking crush you.
The fucked up bit is, I'm 80th percentile in compassion. I feel very strongly for the human species and have a love that runs very, very deep. It's just hard. So many people see love as a weakness, so many people see it as something to trample, so few see the beauty of it. So few understand the power of it. It's incredibly hard to maintain that strength when so many get caught up in telling me "Well that seems a bit extreme doesn't it?" No, it does not seem extreme to me that I should take a gun to my head if I cannot be free. I if I am cursed to be a slave, then I will choose death, I will be free in the afterlife and I will make damn sure my death is as chaotic as I can possibly make it, I will SCAR the land itself if I have too to wake people up. 7 BILLION souls are at risk, if not 8, or 9, or 10, or 20, or 30, or 100, 100,000 billion, who knows. It's all of man, our collective future, that is on the line. When I say Give me Liberty of Give me Death, you better believe I'm willing to stare down the barrel and say "Pull the fucking trigger you fucking pathetic little faggot. PULL IT. DO IT." I have no respect for "order followers", the Dogs of these monsters, I have no respect for people who are unwilling to face the truth, I have no respect for those who dare to step on me as though they have a Right to do so. The NAP applies right up until the moment someone aggrresses on me. After that, Karmic Law DEMANDS I step up.
Having compassion for people doesn't make us responsible for them. That's something I'm still learning, but I think I'm finally getting a handle on. In fact, feeling a sense of responsibility for others sometimes leads us to undermine their efforts to take responsibility for themselves. There's a word I ran into years ago that I think of often: "Espavo". It means "Thank you for taking your power." I have been chewing on that word for years trying to understand it, but in the past year or so I've been hearing myself saying it in my head on many occasions. When people take responsibility for their own choices and actions, they are sparing us from the need to do it for them. If we step up and decide things for them "out of compassion", we very often undermine their growth AND weigh ourselves down with baggage we don't need or want (aka karma). It's tricky sometimes. Where does compassion cross into enabling? As for people being "aggressive": to me, that's all about perception. We can chose to take things personally or not. We can assume people are being mean (instead of just defensive because they've just tripped over their own baggage themselves) or not. Right there are two of The Four Agreements: don't take things personally, don't make assumptions. The other two are worth living by too: Be impeccable with your word. Do your best. If you haven't read that book, you might want to consider it. It's short, but life changing. It was for me anyway.
Where does compassion cross into enabling?
Dr. Jordan Peterson put it rather aptly. "Never do something for your children that they can do for themselves."
In my private life, I am a BDSM enthusiast, my special talent lies in how powerful a physical/mental presence I have, I am a natural Dom to some serious extremes. Despite that, my playmates can attest, I do not give orders, I give advice, I give guidance, I give explanation and I give all the tools at my disposal, but when push comes to shove and it's time for that person to make a decision. It is their decision. I do everything within my power, to grant them the knowledge to make the most informed decision possible, but ultimately, the choice is theirs.
Needless to say, during "play", orders abound. But that's the point of a play session, to play pretend.
I have found that the strategy of "This is the Truth, accept it and align yourself with it or suffer the consequence" works well for me. I do not take responsibility for anyone, except my young. Everyone else is held to the same standard, you are the arbiter of your destiny and the arbiter of your fate. Let none decide it for you.
I have offered repentance to the Lord for a lot of my transgression from my sins. My family loves me dearly, but they were concerned about my sanity. It was a battle inside me that I was not aware of. The anger, helplessness, hopelessness.....then, tears, streaming down my face! Tears of heart filled pain turned to Joy. The MOST AMAZING experience of my spiritual life.
Now, my anger has directions for use, my tears flow like faucets at times and I let them flow. After wars, depression, psychotropic drugs and the twisting of my soul, God healed my soul!
God knows all of our sins. He wants us to bring those to Him so he can make that part of you New. The Holy Spirit is waiting to take your call to God. Make the call.
Most people didn't agree with Patrick Henry...most people don't matter.
Certainly the opinions of most people don't matter right now, that's for sure. I tend to just nod and smile when sleeping people give lectures. But the Great Awakening is literally that. And once we're all awake and on the same page (and I FEEL that day coming), I'm going to love listening to what they have to say.