Tag: slavery

The American Dream works because American Dreamers work

I was musing this morning about how so many of us dream of getting rich quick and then taking it easy. We complain about being so tired in our 30s and 40s and wished that we could just be done working. I was one of those, dreaming about retirement.

Now, as retirement looms closer, I am realizing how much I actually enjoy working and how much I will miss it when I truly am too tired to do it.

Both Plymouth Colony and Virginia Colony started out as communes. Plymouth Colony was supposed to be a Utopian Commune with everyone holding everything in common. The Virginia Colony was supposed to encourage capitalism, but everyone was first indentured so lived communistically until their indenture had been paid.

Both colonies had a hard time flourishing, because those that could work hard had no incentive to when they received the same recompense as those that could not work hard. So three years in, Governor Bradford of Plymouth Colony decided to shift to capitalism. Within the year the colony was on excellent footing. About that same year, Puritans took over Virginia Colony and also gave colonists their own land to take care of, even though their indentures were not yet through. This also saved Virginia Colony.

There are some people who inherit money. There are some people who work extremely hard their whole life and barely scrape by. There are people who do run into horrible obstacles such as racism, ageism, disabilities not of their own making, and many other things. But in general, if you are willing to work, there is a dream to be had here. You may not have the grandest house, the fastest car, the fanciest clothes, the most lavish food or the most impressive vacations, but you can live a good life that includes sharing that goodness with others.

The Bible gives us many instructions on how to live a successful life. One of the first is in the very first few chapters. Exodus 20:9-10 tells us that we should labor for six days and rest on the seventh.

One of my ancestors, John Quincy Adams, worked toward his dream of having a country free of slavery, dying before he saw the dream, but dying trying. He had been a Senator, then the 6th President and finally, died working as a member of the House of Representatives. He did not let status get in the way of working for what he dreamed of. And because of his efforts, and the effort of many others, slavery was abolished just 15 years later.

Here’s to dreamers and the work it takes to realize those dreams!

Women’s unLiberation

I have found it very fascinating that the new craze to sweep us ladies up is so anti everything we say we have been working for over the past century or so.  We truly have come a long way, baby. Yes, there are still plenty of places to go – women are not paid 100% equally to men, many women are suffering unspeakable tyranny both here in the United States and throughout the world. But overall, things are moving in a good direction for women here in the  United States.

So why the embracing of tyranny again? Why, after all of the hard work of generations of women liberators are we mesmerized by those gray books and movies? We say we want to be free, to be treated with respect, to be seen as an equal, and yet, we are captivated by this? Why?

I have not read or watched them, so I am just going off of the advertising that I wasn’t able to miss, and I do understand that the protagonist does eventually free herself, for a time, anyway. But why get so sucked up into it in the first place?

The only answer I could come up with is this: all of us were made to worship, to be obsessed by, to be captivated, even enslaved by something or someone. I see it in my own daily life. I am not truly happy unless I have something that requires something of me – my cat, my guinea pig, my husband, my kids, the school, the church, my family, my friends, my books.

Yes, it is nice to have a day or two with nothing to do. But to find real fulfillment, I need someone or something that requires my time and attention.

Why did I get a dog when I was single? Yes, a big reason was because I needed something that would require me to exercise, but I also needed something that would need me. Why did I get married? Why did I have kids? I wanted to belong, I wanted to have some people to serve, to have fun with, too, but, primarily to serve – that is what true love is, after all – giving your life up for another.

I think the following Bible passage sums up well that we are destined to be slaves, it is just our choice to what:

18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.

20For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness. 21What fruit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:18-23