Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Attitude - How Do You Prepare Yourself?

Attitude. How do you prepare your attitude on a normal day?
What about when something challenging happens, that will change your life?
What do criminals do to prepare their attitude before they go and commit a crime that may leave them incarcerated for years... or forever?

I was thinking about this kind of mental preparation following watching a video this morning that was sent to me by a friend on Facebook.

What kind of mental preparation has the father in this video taken to get his attitude congruent to face the challenges in his life? I guess the video is meant to showcase the son in this, but for
me the attitude that this man cultivated throughout shines through and just leaves me speechless.

While there is a lot of 'man-bashing' going on in our societies, and talk of 'deadbeat dads' and the like, this is an inspiration to men and women alike.

See what I mean.





What a lucky kid to be born to such a man.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Personal Sovereignty & Duty As A Citizen

In a recent discussion on a group that I am on, the topic was raised, What Is Your Responsibility As A Citizen? In the context of maintaining one's personal sovereignty how does one balance these two concepts?

This seems to be an issue of confusion. Personal Sovereignty may be an attitude, it does not however, bestow rights over and beyond those that other individuals enjoy in fact - even though they may deny themselves what to me may be a privilege of assuming Personal Sovereignty. Some will view such a concept as anathema, and want no part of it. My Personal Sovereignty, if it is to be so, does not bestow on me the right to disregard the rights of others.

My responsibility as a citizen is to live within the legal boundaries set down for the community. My sense of duty to others may take many forms. When I step outside the boundaries dictated by the rules of the community in which I am a member, I may or may not be acting in the interests of the wider community. At this point however, I run the risk of allowing my own hubris to override that good of the community, as is generally agreed and set down in law... in favour of following my own whim. Good intentions aside, I am as problematic to the society to which I claim citizenship, as any with poor intentions, if the action is the same.

Within the context of the society in which we reside, and claim citizenship, there are many ways that we can exert our personal sovereignty. Pretending that this extends to having our own personal set of rules that owe nothing to the context of the society in which we live is not only foolish, it despoils the whole notion of Personal Sovereignty.

Even kings... especially kings... understand the limits of their office.