Rise
TRIGGER WARNING.
In consideration of the current divisions that I am witnessing in the human race, I have been tip toeing around the edges valiantly attempting to find a place between the poles.
Someone asked me the other day, which side of history will you be on? Will you do the right thing, or will you f*ck it up for the rest of us? Wow. I was a kind of taken aback by that question. The extreme polarity of the demand in it, reflected back to me the lines that have been drawn in our everyday lives now. We live in an unprecedented time in history where debate is banned, free speech is censored and science is sold to the highest bidder, amid nonsensical core assumptions, responsible for the driving of these contrapositions either by dangling a very large juicy carrot in front of the masses labelled “Back to Normal” or dooming the jabbed to an agonizing death within two years.
Come on. There must be a third option? Can we open our hearts to each other instead?
Our Australian history reminds us of the Eureka Stockade oath that says, “We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties.” As factions gather while communities divide, a new revolution is upon us. As James Wilson, in his Lectures on Law, declared in 1791, “Government should be formed to secure and to enlarge the exercise of the natural rights of its members”. We were each born free. Never forget that we do not actually need any government to hand us our liberty. It is our birthright. How we make our way through this is on us.
As one faceless social media warrior recently said, “You cannot vaccinate yourself back to health.” Well said. Just as we cannot legislate our way back to our freedom, we cannot fight our way back to peace. Healthy people are not responsible for disease yet witness the daily war of words across social media and you will see the battle lines drawn between neighbors, friends, workmates, and families.
English Chemist, Joseph William Mellor said it best when he noted that “By no process of sound reasoning can a conclusion drawn from limited data have more than a limited application “. Tempering a world of censorship, fake news and this global phenomenon of bureaucrats, under the mantle of Chief Health Officers, determining how we live our lives based on the much quoted yet seemingly non-transparent health advice, isn’t it time for us to look beyond the limits enforced upon us to create a vision for the future based on our love for the human collective?
Could you have ever imagined living in a world where an untested experimental shot would be indicative of a health status while a holistic healthy lifestyle would be regarded as dangerous? We are citizens of this earth, not a resource to be exploited, controlled, measured and homogenized. The Oxford Dictionary reminds us that the word ‘health’ derives from Old English ‘hælth’, which is related to ‘whole’ ‘a thing that is complete in itself’. In resourcing ourselves to be strong enough to survive this current experience, perhaps our aspirations will lead us to the discovery of a mid point between both sides so we can finally connect with the whole. In spite of the threatened oppression that faces us, our only act of rebellion may be to build our own capacity in activities of joy and service, connection to the earth and each other, meditation, nutrition, movement and balance despite mandated limitations.
So smile because you have teeth, regenerate under the Southern Cross at night, dig deep to allow your courage and grace to emerge, stand with your fellow man and rise.
Rise not to fight but to live.
The future of our species depends on it.
Nichola Burton Copyright 2021
