Our Humanness Explored: What's Worth Protecting Above All?
The Humanness
essay
Dio Lyons
Is a life without love a life that’s worth living?
If robbed of the opportunity to perform the acts (of sacrifice) that fulfill our love’s potential, can such a life still be considered a human life?
For a life of love to take root, the soil must first be fertile. What constitutes a soil that is rich and ready for love’s growth, and how is that soil to be protected?
Can a free nation be sustained if it fails to protect the soil in which love takes root?
We are not robots, we are not cogs in an economic machine, and we are not the jigsaw pieces of an industrial puzzle. We are human; not a.i., we are just the "i," an intelligence designed to serve what lives.
Above all, as humans, it is our humanness that deserves both our celebration and our undying protection. Why protection? Because our humanness will blossom only under a balanced set of conditions, and when these conditions are violated, our humanness drains away, thus renders us meaningless, confused, and enslaved.
A robot neither loves nor needs to be loved. He is an army of one whose circuitry is indifferent to the invitations of friendship. A robot cares nothing for being recognized for its helpfulness, ingenuity, and elegant execution of a necessary task, thus its mechanical heart will never squeeze out even a single tear of gratitude for the sacrifices made on its behalf. We are not robots.
What are we?
A person, like a flower, starts from a seed. That seed contains millions of years of perfect instructions. When that human seed is set in the proper conditions and when it receives adequate sustenance, it blossoms. Not a dog, not a tree, not a zebra, but a person. A person experiences his humanness the moment he recognizes himself as part of Earth’s beautiful story–––it is a story about what works, it is a story about every cell and organism knowing exactly what its role is in Earth’s magnificent ecosystem.
We humans were designed with love, empathy, a need for story, language, a moral framework, and a need for meaning. Why? Because a person is “part of.” All of these are necessary ingredients for the person who is part of a group. A human cannot be a full and functioning person unless he is part of a tribe. Who will he become if not part of something he loves, thus part ofsomething that will love him back? And when Earth’s providence nourishes the tribe, then the tribe celebrates its place in Earth’s elegant story, a story where time is our given opportunity to repay the providence bestowed upon us. And in that moment when a person recognizes himself as part of something that works––– a tribe that works, a tribe set upon an Earth that works––– is the moment he recognizes just how important he is in holding it all together in balance. And by his becoming part of this Earth, he becomes a steward. His sacred duty is one that fashions a special glue used to hold life together; it’s an old recipe made of Earth’s principles, and these principles are designed to create balance between beauty and efficiency, between want and need, between survival and living, and between Earth and tribe. Every act of his life’s performance aims for this balance as to hold his humanness in place. However, if he forgets his responsibility, then his wastefulness and ugliness will erode everything: the earth, the tribe, and himself–––life will wither around him.
When the landscape is seen as a theatrical stage, and when that stage and its characters are beautifully placed, then man will happily accept creation’s invitation to play a supportive role. When he accepts this invitation, he shows his readiness to fulfill life’s meaning; it rises from his heart and overflows from his mouth as an affirmative “yes.” And to the degree that he loves his role in life’s participation, is the degree to which he enjoys proving his love.
His eagerness itself is proof that dignity has successfully taken root. This dignity is his humanness, and his humanness blossoms to the exact degree that he willingly proves his trustworthiness and loyalty. He shows us by his actions that he cares more for holding Earth and tribe together than he cares for his own pleasure and comfort. And so, to the degree that he sacrifices––– in his own special way––– is the degree that his life is being shaped by meaning. Thismeaning is where his humanness is experienced, and this humanness is reliant upon one key ingredient, FREEDOM.
A man must have the freedom to choose the unique ways by which he’ll prove his love––– his love for both his people and the lands that feeds him. This proof is what makes him an individual. The special ways by which he chooses to offer himself is what gives display to his character, his positive identity, and his value.
So I ask you here, as the glue of our nation, of our freedoms, and of our shared humanness is coming apart, who are the political parties, organizations, corporations, industries, and the agencies promising that your life will be better if you forfeit the freedoms currently in your use? They hope you will trust their authority to hold the fabric of reality together, better than you trusting yourself and your loved ones.
Because robots have no use for life’s romance, they do not mourn losing life’s greatest opportunity, which is the opportunity of turning one’s existence into an offering of beauty and meaning. What would our lives be if we didn’t have the freedom to choose how to demonstrate our love? Sacrifice is what makes romance, and there is nothing more romantic than sacrifice. However, when sacrifices are made at gunpoint, they are not sacrifices at all, and they are not romantic. Sacrifices require the freedom to choose the ways by which to give up our self-interest as to bestow benefit upon our loved ones. Life becomes devoid of romance if life is devoid of the freedom to uniquely prove our love. When we have the freedom to choose both how and how much of our love to give, then freedom has placed dignity within our reach.
If you love life, and if you love to prove your love to those whom you love, then you must also protect the freedoms that allow us the ability to prove ourselves––– proven locally, to the people whom we live with intimately and interdependently. The only way that these crucial human freedoms remain protected is if every person in a free nation receives the initiations that nourish and nurture the love buried in the seed of their humanness. This seed of our humanness is activated by initiation––– by our tribe’s depiction of Earth’s beautiful story, a story that showers water and sunshine upon the timeless wisdom that grows in each of us. This is where objectivity and meaning takes root.
To the degree that every citizen of a free nation feels honored to carry liberty’s burden, is the degree to which our tasks are kept in-house and local, rather than outsourced or trusted to a government. To the degree that we love life, is the degree to which we shall willingly and responsibly participate, is the degree to which our life’s romance shall blossom.
Can we trust the elected people whom we’ve offloaded our responsibilities to? Of course not! Why would we trust those to whom we have shucked off our responsibility to… as they now have no reason to trust or respect us? We cannot trust those who have no respect for us. Why would anyone trust someone who has refused to accept their own responsibility? Corruption and deception ensue.
Those who have never been initiated into their own humanness are the people who most often despise life itself, they resent participation, they consider liberty’s burden an act of enslavement, and thus they vote for any politician who promises to ease their burden, which of course, politicians rarely ease anyone’s burdens but their own. When a culture fails to give its people the proper initiations, that culture destroys its most valuable asset, it’s humanness. When freedom dies, is when humanness dies, is the end of romance, the end of friendship, character, and meaning. They don’t tell you that in the brochure. Look at N. Korea, Maoist China, and Stalin’s Soviet Union. The destruction of the family, the community, and the church congregation, is the end of local neighborly trust. We are told by tyrants and the brainwashed, that this is “all for the common good.” But we know that the “common good” does not love you back unless it is local and intimate. Of course, the people who love us, are the common good!
When a government is given our trust, instead of our trust being given to friends and neighbors, then all freedom, dignity, beauty, and meaning will drain away, leaving us only as slaves and masters: thus robots that serve an economic and industrial system, a system that itself is unable to love us back. History has shown us this.
If you want to experience all the good and noble things that we humans were designed for, then create them in your small communities amongst yourselves where your humanness can be kept close and guarded. Build upon the principles that work! And to the degree that your people internalize and operate by these principles, is the degree to which humanness may be held in trust–––and that trust is where culture is born. Do not trust this humanness to anyone but the closest people around you, the people whom you survive and congregate with, the people whom you trade with, the people whom if they robbed you, everyone in the community would shame them. And most importantly, engage only with the people who hold these principles in trust! Our shared anchoring in these principles is what prevents indolence on the one end and greed and corruption on the other, hence this is what promotes balance. The trust and goodwill between people must be via their mutual dedication to the principles, nothing else. Humanness is preserved by accountability, and that accountability is local, it is not nationally centralized. I’m not suggesting it is easy or perfect, but again, your humanness is sacred. Who will you trust it to? It will either be trusted locally to those who will most certainly sometimes bruise it, or instead, trusted to those on your tv screens, those who will never love you back, those who do not respect you, those who are certain to steal it, enslave you, and patronize you.
Why is it that the people on the national stage who sell “hope” do not phrase it as I do? You decide… and I hope that you choose humanness––– our humanness. We are not robots. We are human, and designed to live our humanness. Because our humanness can be stolen or converted into robotic slavery, it is up to us to protect it. It is up to us to recover what’s been hidden in plain sight.
Thank you for hearing these words. May these words give voice to the beauty that shines bright at the center of our DNA. Please join me in protecting what is most beautifully and essentially human.
Freedom and Liberty
are
built upon a story,
and that story
needs its storytellers.
AMERICAN FIREKEEPER
America-First
Political Leadership Guidance
Political Messaging and Storytelling
Dio Lyons
American Firekeeper 2022
All rights reserved
americanfirekeeper@protonmail.com
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