What Do I Stand For?

 For many years in my life I had no idea what I stood for. I had some sort of idea about things that I liked. And they had no real standing in my life.

You see, I was a chameleon. I changed my actions, attitudes, and behaviors, to fit the people that I was around. I never stood for anything that you did not also stand for.

It made for a very lonely experience of life. Sooner or later, mostly sooner, people saw that I was pretty much empty of any real conviction. I also had no sense of my own identity, of who I was as a Human Being. And, in the end, I was surrounded by people just like me. No real conviction, no real sense of self, just anger and self pity.

After I began a journey of healing I found out that this also was, by necessity, a journey of Self Identification. And, over time, thru the 12 Steps of Narcotics Anonymous, a lot of reading and reflecting, and a journey thru the Landmark Curriculum for Living, I began the process of healing and discovering who in the world this stranger who looked back at me out of the mirror was and what in the world he stood for.

I am still on that journey.

I have also discovered that it really is useless to be against anything. Be it a person, place, situation, or ideal. I found that I am at my best and most effective when I Stand For Something. And I finally got that in order to stand for something that I have to Own My Life, Be Responsible For My Life. The following, I think, best represents what I mean by this:

“To take a stand that you are cause in the matter contrasts with it being your fault, or that you failed, or that you are to blame, or even that you did it. That you are the cause of everything in your life is a place to stand from which to view and deal with life – a place that exists solely as a matter of your choice. The stand that one is cause in the matter is a declaration, not an assertion of fact. It simply says, 'you can count on me (and I can count on you) to look at and deal with life from the perspective of my being cause in the matter.' When you have taken the stand (declared) that you are cause in the matter of your life it means that you give up the right to assign cause to the circumstances, or to others. That is, you give up the right to be a victim. You also give up the right to assign cause to the waxing and waning of your state of mind – all of which, while undoubtedly soothing, leave you helpless (at the effect of). At the same time, taking this stand does not prevent you from holding others responsible.”

by Werner Erhard

Interestingly enough I have found that by Being The Cause in the Matter, IE Being Responsible for, of my life a great Freedom and Power. The Freedom and Power that I was looking for in everything outside of my life I found in Responsibility For, Being Cause in the Matter of, My Life.

So what do I stand for today?

• I stand for everyone having all the personal freedom they could wish with the responsibility to recognize where their freedom ends and another persons begins.
• I stand for everyone have enough food, water, shelter, medical care, transportation, and clothing. Enough.
• I stand for Community with the Community's Responsibility to care for each other.
• I stand for the Freedom to be who we are with the responsibility to recognize that I will not always feel comfortable with other person's expression of who they are and that they are free to have that expression of who they are with no interference from me.
• I stand for education that teaches one how to think and not what to think with the responsibility to defend someone's right to think it even when I do not like it.
• I stand for the right of a child to be a child while taking on the responsibility to protect that child from those who would control it under the guise of protecting it.
• I stand for Peace throughout the entire world and the responsibility to keep that peace both internally and externally.
• I stand for Democracy and the responsibility to defend it from more Internal threats than External.
• I stand for Love and the responsibility to show Love even to those that Hate.
• I stand for holding those that hate accountable for the results of their hate and the recognition of my responsibility to not become one who hates while defending Love.

So there you go. Some of the things that I stand for. Those are the broadest expression of the things that matter to me.

What do you stand for?