Fifty years ago, as our nation celebrated its bicentennial, a shy skinny suburban fourth grader summoned the courage to step out from among his classmates. Performing his impersonation of James Cagney as he spun, shook and slid across a soulless gymnasium floor. His classmates in support of his stage entrance as they sung about a “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” At nine I was that Yankee Doodle boy. At fifty-nine, I am that Yankee Doodle boy no more.
It’s not that I don’t love my country, but I’ve come to realize that you cannot love nation over neighbor. You cannot love all people and play partisan politics. You cannot strive to serve all your constituents when your advertised loyalty is only concerned about some of your constituents. You can’t even serve some constituents when your sole loyalty is to those that finance your political party and fund your campaign.
The love of money really is the root of all evil. A root that runs deep in the American scenery and spirit. A root that only bears bitter fruit. A bad bounty that’s never about the betterment of all, only the benefit of a few. A nation of the people somehow became a government of only preposterously prosperous people.
Like all earthly empires, estates and entities, even the noblest nation and the moralist of men (and women) cannot prevent the certain collapse of their country. The timescale from ancient empires to modern day America is a sad story strewn with the names of known and unknown human states. Faithful citizens who believed in an idea greater than themselves. Trusting that their country was greater than the sum of its people. That their nation would never perish from the face of the earth.
People not unlike you and me who believed they alone control the world. People not unlike you and me who believed they alone deserve all the world’s resources. People not unlike you and me who believed they alone were special simply because (insert declared faith).
Like national myths of rugged individualism or pushed narratives about me as the moral center. Like virtuous visions of an unvirtuous empire or vapid visions of victimization. Like the faith I danced to in 1976. A faith I would dance to for another forty-six years. A faith I could dance no longer to in 2022; saved by the grace of God. God is love.
My life now led by the Light of the world. Light that guides my life to find the narrow path. A way of life joined to the Truth of the world, not the mortal created myths of this world.
While myths may serve a noble purpose, predictably all will become manipulated by men (and women) as a means to power. Morphing into one more method to exploit their neighbors. A mode of selfishness not service. Living a lie that neither cherishes love nor cultivates life.
I no longer dance in the darkness. My false faith in every worldly idea, individual and item, including I, shattered and smashed. Like all my myths, my myth of America silenced.
Our government a clear and present danger evident at home and abroad. Funding and facilitating the murder of innumerable innocents. Unwilling and uninterested in protecting its own citizens from harmful chemicals, products and predatory practices. Their every decision and deed only about hoarding for themselves, as opposed to helping all; particularly those we should help more not help less.
The worship of any worldly idol, like national myths or governments is a death cult. It’s a faith rooted in something other than love. It’s a bloodsucker that feeds off life because its incapable of creating life. It’s a parasite that has blinded humanity since in the beginning. I once was blind, but now I see. My myth of America and my faith in our government dead.
Like all earthly things, all myths and all governments, will pass away. I am learning to live in the Way as I learn to love my neighbor. I am learning to live in the Truth as I learn to love my God. I am learning to live in the Life as I learn to let go off a faith that only yields death.
Peace. God loves you.
If you want to learn more about how my spiritual awakening came to be, you can read about it in Finding God in Vegas: A Gen X Spiritual Awakening; available on Amazon and across all platforms in print or electronic or audio.