To Conform or Not To Conform

A little green shoot that has risen from the earth - - -
now free to ascend - - -
within the realm of its kind - - - -
to whatever beauty it may attain.......

It breathes - - -
as all living things must do - -
it drinks - - -
it must rest - - -
and above all it must grow - - - - -
for if it ceases to grow - -
it shall cease to live.........

Gwen Frostic "A Place on Earth"

We are living in, what I call, the Age of the Individual. It has become so imperative that we find our individual path that sometimes we have trouble finding a path at all! Everyone is squabbling over their rights: women have the "right to choose" whether they will murder their unborn child; illegal immigrants have a "right" to all the benefits of natural born or naturalized citizens; every citizen has the "right" to be provided for by the government when natural disaster strikes. And the list could go on and on. Ironically, the stream toward liberation and the freedom to claim our rights is countered by the movement of "Political Correctness" (a term I did not coin). I believe the cattle prod of being politically correct is one of the most dangerous means of control in our nation today.

When we become overly concerned about being politically correct in how we speak, we lose our individuality. When I say that I want to take off the shroud of political correctness, I am not endorsing verbal abuse in any of its ugly forms. I am simply wanting to be genuine with how I think and the opinions that I've grown to believe are healthy.

Unfortunately, this is a point to which I've come slowly, for I am a natural born people-pleaser. For years I've looked from afar and admired those Movers and Shakers who have leaped up the ladder of success multi-rungs at a time. Naturally, their success includes huge financial acquisitions along with wide-ranging respect. Then there is me. I am just me.

At this time of the year, I am watching the trees. Even now they show that their leaves are altering. The walnut tree is peppering her leaves over the back yard. Soon the oak trees will turn golden and provide us with enough leaf mulch to cover the flower beds with a 6 inch blanket of winter protection. Who would have thought there were so many leaves on those branches! Soon the trees will be without leaves entirely and each tree form will be seen for what it is. It's shape will be apparent to all.

A tree is not concerned about being politically correct. It is true to its form and is vase shaped, or conical or spreading.... Oswald Chambers in "Daily Thoughts For Disciples" on April 21, writes

"The only thing I can give God is 'my right to myself' (Romans 12:1). If I will give God that, He will make a holy experiment out of me, and God's experiments always succeed. The only mark of a disciple is moral originality. The Spirit of God is a well of water in the disciple, perennially fresh. When once the saint begins to realize that God engineers circumstances, there will be no more whine, but only a reckless abandon to Jesus. Never make a principle out of your own experience; let God be as original with other people as He is with you."

I know it sounds like a dichotomy to say that when I let go of my "rights" that I gain them. But it is true. As I've been writing in my blog, I'm finally finding "my voice". I'm dipping my toe in the stream of humanity and wriggling it around a little bit. And in the process I'm hoping that I will no longer conform to what I think I should be doing, but I will find that I have something to say that is important to me. Whether it will be important to anyone else or not is not my responsibility. However, my liberty is to ungag myself so that I can speak what I believe in. In the process, I'm finding out, for myself, what shape of tree I am before all my leaves falls off and everyone else views it.

Graphic design based on tutorial by April Hunt