"Wherever you're going, I'm going your way."
Don't know about you, but I have never been afflicted with the Herd Mentality. Never.
I've always been proud of that, but now on the Twilight Zone Landscape where I have landed instead of dying young, I'm sort of weakly becoming a little ashamed of what once made me proud.
I blame my non-herd-mentality on my ancestors.
You probably came from a lovely placid get-along-with-everybody-be-the-social-star kind of family of antiquity.......and it shows.
Forgive me, but I came from Hardy Stock!!
Hardy Stock: definitely not weeds (so you cannot weed us out no matter what kind of a social net you put into play).
Hardy. Illusive. "Dormant" only to spring back vigorously.
My ancestors came from Scotland, Ireland and England. We were the Border Runners! Refusing to assimilate or support, my ancestors bobbed and weaved, re-crossing borders, finding new hide-outs and staying out of the fray.
"By god, don't tell me what to do!" is a rebellious stand, but it is never about taking up arms (unless cornered) and never about controlling other people.
The only agenda is personal, not social: LEAVE ME ALONE! By god, don't tell me what to do!
That agenda is never peddled to the rest of society, let along fitted into a revolution.
It is only passed on genetically.
When my ancestors got totally sick of the whole British Isles, they came to America.
Guess who they were attracted to? Guess who they had something in common with?
Not the Puritans.
Did you know there were over 500 languages spoken in North America before the Puritans arrived? That isn't counting the dialects! Those native people couldn't have mounted a federal defense if they had wanted! Refusing to assimilate, they moved over...fought back or were annihilated.
Talk about Border Runners!
No, my family ancestors didn't drag the Native Americans they married upward to the Herd Mentality.
That wasn't in our genes.
But my blended English-Irish-Scottish ancestors did appreciate the Native Americans.
And I applaud them today. One of the best books I ever did read is "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". This book by Dee Brown is a history of the USA looking eastward........instead of looking westward.
It captured me and I have never looked "westward ho the wagons" since.
So, I got a double whammy of non-herd-mentality genes and I have lots of stamina when it comes to resisting the weak impulse to play ball with you.
But I've decided to come out of my little world and make an exception about the 'cliff activity', the cliff with the waterfall.
Since you all....100% of you....are going over the end-of-mortality cliff, I'm going, too!! You are NOT going to leave me behind! I may not have played ball with you..... nor even watched you and your games, but.....................................
wherever you're going, I'm going your way.
Now that makes it sound like I have a choice, doesn't it? You and I both know I really have no choice. The cliff is there downstream. and I'm not talking Financial Cliff!
My choice is whether I flow over it with dignity like my Native American ancestors, or screaming and kicking like my British ancestors. (just kiddin', sort of just kiddin')
I hope I have some dignity when it is my turn. Or if that "dignity part" of my brain has turned to dry rot before my legs give out and I go kicking, I hope you all who are still waiting your turn will judge me by my heart, not by my kicking legs.
As Pastor Ralph said, "If my brain forgets, I hope my heart remembers."
He was talking about something else, but a great principle remains great wherever it is applied.
It is all about the heart.
Sitting on the river bank under the full moon,
8tracks.comRiverwatch
PS The river seems to be picking up speed with each passing day!
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