Stand Up. You Are Not Alone, You Stand On the Shoulders of Your Ancestors

Principle and the Person: Are They One In The Same?
Sitting in Barnes & Noble watching “Nothing, but the Truth.” It’s a movie about the courage of reporter played Kate Beckinsale that was sent to jail. She held to her conviction and was jailed for almost three year for holding onto her beliefs. She held in the face of mortal harm—in the face of the weight of the government—in the face of troubled marriage--She held her ground. I am sure she would have done many things differently. Yet she held to a noble belief. Alan Alda playing the attorney that represented her through her incarceration had line that will stick me for awhile. The line was, ” I am representing you and not representing (your) principles.” Later in circumspect he said, “There is no difference between the principle and the person.”

What does this mean? If one has no principle, than one is not a person. In many ways, I find solace and strength in this belief. Certain beliefs, certain principles, certain faiths—these abstractions are the stuff of who we are. If we do not hold on or cherish these thought—these beliefs--these abstract concepts--we are no longer something more. We are simply the action and reaction of events. We are the nature/ nurture conundrum. We are simply the result. We are not something more. We are just the end results of previous events.

No Heart And No Soul—Nothing, But Chemical Reactions and Behavior Modifications.
I fall back on the “Defense of God” argument that was written earlier. We are the man-made concepts that describe things. We are cold—the absence of heat. We are darkness—the absence of light. We are evil—the absence of the Big Smile. Freedom, faith, love, hate, belief are just man-made concepts that gets us through the nights. Lies and fables that molds us to follow certain behavior. Hammurabi’s code, US Constitution, the Bible, Koran, the Torah—All this would mean that the stories are nothing, but management how-to book. The stories and fables are just a model of the human animal’s behavior.

No Convictions And No Soul Equals No Person
Can’t help but think we are nothing without conviction. If this true, it sends chills down my spine and through my soul. Analyze the person in the mirror. Who is he? Who is she?

I say a person of a conviction must stand. To be more, he needs to believe he is more. He needs to believe that he is part of something more. If it is a genetic program hardwired in our DNA, if it is a millennium of social engineering shaped by mythology and societal dogma, then let it be. Like re-writing the text, re-writing the program, let us remake who we are to be something more. We need to believe in order to achieve. See it, be it.

Be the Nail That Stands Up. Fear Not the Hammer
I say stand. Be the nail that tries to get hammered down. Be the one standing for something to believe in. Realize one thing you are not alone. You will never be alone. One will never be alone. Can you stand in the fire? Can you stand under the light? Can you stand alone on a belief?

Amistad—Stolen People, Stolen Story
Again, I steal. Not intentionally. This concept arose from a movie that moved me. The film was Amistad. Please watch this movie on the human spirit. It was not my intention to steal this film’s moral of the story. As I started writing, the moral revealed itself. Amistad encapsulates the human spirit to be more than what was before them. To grow, to develop, to evolve into something better, something grander—this is our charge.

Person and His Convictions Are Not Separate, But Irrefutably Infused
Are you and your principles separate or they infused? I argue there is a difference between being and intelligent person versus being a wise person. For me, knowing something is right and doing something right are often not the same act.

This link below is the movie speech that moved me. I hope you take time to watch and listen to moral of this story. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechamistadjqadams.html

Be more. Be your own Hero. Stand up. John Quincy Adams stated “. . .When a member of the Mende encounters a situation where there appears no hope at all, he invokes his ancestors. It's a tradition. See, the Mende believe that if one can summon the spirits of one's ancestors, then they have never left, and the wisdom and strength they fathered and inspired will come to his aid.” Stand up you are not alone. You stand on the shoulders of your ancestors.