Today - July 4th - is the anniversary of the day when the founders of the United States wrote in 1776 these amazing words: “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.”
To this day, this statement is one of the highest and most profound statements ever formulated by mankind.
So it's a statement that is really worth thinking about and meditating on... I say this because the ultimate abuse occurs when someone tries to violate another person’s unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And this, we all know, is happening all the time, all around the world. Just turn on the TV and you see it happening. It’s going on all the time on the world stage.
But this abuse is not just happening on the world stage, it’s also happening up close to us – in the lives of people who are around us. And it can be pretty shocking when you start to notice that it’s not just out there but that it’s also in here.
Since I do private sessions with people almost every day, I get to hear about this happening all the time, right here in peaceful little Denmark. Almost everyone who comes to me for private sessions has experienced this type of abuse and is today suffering from the effects of this. They are suffering from and struggling with the reality that someone close to them has tried to violate their unalienable right to their own life, and to liberty (which is the freedom to do what they want – and experience the consequences) and to pursue happiness in whatever way they deem best (and again to experience the consequences). I hear this often from my clients. And it’s heartbreaking…
I hear stories of husbands who are trying to violate their wives’ right to live their own lives as they deem fit and who justify this violation by repeating the old patriarch call to duty for women saying “It’s your job to make me happy”… “You have a duty to the children”… “You have to think about the family,”… “I know what’s best for you”… etc. etc. It’s sickening to hear and because these women are not clear about the fact that they have certain unalienable rights and that among these are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – it’s easy for their husbands to manipulate them.
I also hear stories of parents who are trying to manipulate their adult children in this way and I hear it from adults who have been manipulated in this way by their parents. It is as if these children (whether they are young or old) only exist to make the parents happy and to satisfy the needs of the parents. It’s as if children from these confused and dysfunctional families are brought up to believe that they don’t have the right to their own lives. And so they feel they don’t have the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness in whatever way they see fit (and again experience the consequences of their choices). And when they finally try to strike out on their own, they often feel terrible guilt because they were taught from an early age that their lives belong to another.
And this is the ultimate abuse – to hear from the adult caretaker(s) in your life that you don’t have the right to your own life – that you don’t have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in whatever way you see fit. When this happens, it is the ultimate violation of a person’s basic human rights as a free individual.
This of course does not mean that parents are not responsible for guiding and protecting their children when they are small, but as children grow into adulthood, it is no longer the parent’s job to determine what’s best for their children’s future. Because how can they know? How can one person possibly know what is best for another? Especially when we take into consideration that all men and women are created equal and that we are all endowed by our Creator with the same unalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
So the violation of human rights is not just something that is happening out there on the world stage… it’s also something that is happening right here where we are. And I doubt very much that we can fix out there until we fix in here. Out there is just a reflection of in here…
That’s why I believe the wise words of the American founders are definitely worth thinking about and meditating upon…
“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.”
The men who wrote this statement truly saw into the core of the human condition. They understood the cry for freedom that is in every person’s heart. They knew that each and every one of us is longing for freedom and for the right to pursue happiness in whatever way we see fit.
Comments