Americans the world over know of July 4th, 1776. Historians argue over whether the actual day should be July 2nd or August 2nd of 1776 however I’ll suggest that whatever the date, it was a day in the making since Mans first appearance upon this lovely sphere God himself purposefully divined as an extension of his deliberate intention.
“As an extension of his deliberate intention!” Yes, not only do I believe this to be so I also believe that all things are created as an extension of Devine intention and as a matter of deference to the idea, I believe that man himself represents the Creators most complex component of this very process largely because man appears to be the only known entity with the power of discernment. The ability not only to make a choice, but to extend and express this choice in both physical and ethereal terms; to articulate complex thoughts and processes in to both action and form; to formulate thought and then cogitate the same as to its validity, purpose and temporal nature.
The concepts surrounding the idea of Independence are as integral to Mans very existence as is the very corporal form that defines him. It has been and will forever be his all-consuming ambition. It is, to the point, the very essence of his providential design. Were it not, the Creator would have had no purpose for introducing the idea of man as the distinct and infinitely capable being that he is. Man is, by every means and measure possible, sui generis, a class unto himself.
Thus: Independent Man, His Independent Mind and His Independent Action! Man, to fulfill his Providential Design, must be Free for Independence to be at Liberty to be expressed. There is NO other context, no other options available.
So then with the aforementioned as a foundation upon which to proceed, let us do so!
If one accepts, if only for the purposes herein, my sovereign link to Independence and Providential Design then one must move beyond the reverie of fireworks and parades and on to a quite different and powerfully refined thought, one that I will characterized as “deferential reverence”.
Deferential Reverence to a much broader and all consuming understanding and acceptance as to the truer domain of America’s Declaration of Independence! What it truly represents and why it is so powerful an admonition to malevolent forces.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness….That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these end, it is the right of the People to alter or abolish it.”
I find the Declaration of Independence to be an intensely spiritual affirmation connecting the corporal form of man directly to both his Creator and to this Creator’s design intention! Yes, what else could the meaning be to the statement “…their Creator with certain unalienable rights….” if not an affirmation of intention!
The intention that man, by the very fact that he exists, alone possesses his domain of “life”: That as an extension of his “life” he alone possesses “liberty” to express the intention of his “life”: And that as an extension of his “liberty” to express his “life” he alone is in possession of his own divinely inspired ability to do so through the “pursuit of happiness”, the supreme expression of “life” and “liberty”!
This ideal of “the pursuit of happiness”, what exactly does it mean? I can craft an entire manuscript on the subject as to this phrase’s historical origins and meaning however we will save that, perhaps, for another time, for now I’ll summarize it in this way: The “pursuit of happiness” is not the accumulation of ignoble impulse, it is not the temporary satisfaction of physical gratification or accumulations. No, the word “pursuit” (historically) is perpetual, on-going and assiduous. “Happiness” intimates the self-affirming attributes that come from accomplishment and reverence concomitant with ones sense of a higher purpose and ideal and never from gain whose result occurs from efforts adverse to the ideal of higher-purpose. In short, “…the pursuit of happiness.” is never an outcome whose result is the measure of wretched or self-indulgent excess in action.
Yes in deed, it was a “Declaration of Independence” but more importantly it was a supremely elegant Affirmation of an Inspired Ideal which had, up to this point, been silenced as Thomas Jefferson would say, by “…kings, noblemen and priests.”
So then let me close with the following thought:
“It is the unalienable right of man to express the divinity of his prospects. It is the nobility of man to insist upon the same and by doing so preserve his unalienable rights by enforcing his will upon and against the forces which would, in the service of their own divisive ambitions, enforce their tyrannical will upon him. It may be as if heaven on earth were man to enjoin himself with providential design as intended. To be otherwise, the design and device of the tyrannical and lecherous, it would be as if hell itself had consumed the planet.”
Affirm and assert, daily, your Independence and do so as if your life depends upon it. Rest assured, it does!
Curtis C. Greco, Founder
