(This article originally appeared at The One About...)
Today is July Fourth. In the United States it is a holiday to celebrate the founding of the country. Now almost every other country out there calls their version of this day, (insert name of country) Day. For example our neighbor to the north just recently celebrated Canada Day.
But we Americans love to celebrate holidays that are based on total fictions. For example we celebrate Easter, which is either about a giant bunny bringing chocolate eggs, or the resurrection of Jesus. We celebrate Christmas, which is either about a jolly fat man who can break into your house regardless of what security methods you use, or the birth of Jesus (...a prequel to Easter I guess...). We also celebrate slightly more high concept holidays, like Thanksgiving, which is either about the fantasy that the Pilgrims liked the Indians and didn't consider them a new form of vermin, or it's about preparing to make human sacrifices to the Gods of Shopping on the next day known as "Black Friday". July Fourth continues that proud tradition. We use the day to celebrate a fiction that is so powerful that we even named the day after it.
That's right kids we call it "Independence Day!".
The only problem is that there is no such thing. There never has been such a thing. And there never will be such a thing.
Everything that each of us does has an impact on everyone and everything else. From obviously major things like how much we consume. To seemingly minor things like whether we are friendly and smile at the person taking our order at McDonald's, or treat them like they are nothing but servile trash.
This is a truth that has been known, and expressed in myriad ways for centuries. You can see it in Buddhism, and other spiritual traditions. Today, you can read about our interconnectedness in fields like Chaos Theory.
The problem is, that it simplifies our lives to believe that we are independent. Because that means that we can do whatever we please and there are no repercussions beyond (...perhaps...) the immediate. It means that we can have as much of anything as we want. And if others don't have enough? Well surely that's not our fault. No, it's got to be their fault. And the state of the planet? Well we couldn't possibly be responsible for that. Right? RIGHT????
Everything we do matters. Everything that corporations do matter. Everything that governments do matter. In short, everything matters. In all things. All the time. This doesn't mean that we should simply sit on our hands and do nothing. Because that's not really going to help. "Nobody move and nobody gets hurt" is a fine thing to shout out during a bank robbery but it's not much of a philosophy of life.
Rather, the best thing to do is to go forward but slowly. To act, cautiously, thoughtfully. To keep upper most in our minds, the fact that what we do has an impact. Maybe it means that we try to plan our trips a little more carefully, to cut back on how much we drive. Perhaps we decide not to belittle the person waiting on us because we've had to repeat our order three times.
So to my Brothers and Sisters in the US, happy Independence Day. Enjoy the day, have a hot dog and go see some fireworks (...those of you that are allowed to have fireworks...), celebrate the fantasy that America is some how magically "Independent". And then tomorrow we can all get back to dealing with the fact of our interdependence.
Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!