6:24 AM.
86 degrees on its way to 104.
There's a 13 mph breeze blowing out of the
Southwest.
Independence Day and St. Arbuck's is
surprisingly busy yet missing the typical morning demographic of overly
stressed and harried individuals on their way to someplace more important than
here.
Today the clientele is mainly comprised
of families getting an early and leisurely start on a day at the lake, the park
or a day trip out of town in search of more moderate climes.
I, on the other hand, am content to just sit,
sip and ponder.
I have been thinking about this whole
"independence" thing.
Our local paper, the Review-Journal, printed
the entire text of the Declaration Of Independence on its Op-Ed page today.
So I read it.
All of it.
I can't remember the last time I had done so.
It triggered a thread of thought, and when
presented with such a distraction I will, in typical fashion, commence tugging
for the simple curiosity of needing to know what will unravel...what is at the
other end.
I gave that thread a little tug.
Dependence is when you can't live without the support
of someone or something else.
Doesn't sound that great...I pulled some
more.
Co-Dependence describes a relationship where one party is
physically or psychologically addicted, and the other is psychologically
dependent on the first.
Scary.
A few additional strands of thread unraveled.
Independence is when you are free from the control,
influence, support or aid of another.
For some reason, that's not sounding all that
great to me either, so I yanked a bit more.
Now, "Interdependence" (according to
RG's paraphrase) is a reciprocal relationship between two or more individuals
(or groups) wherein it is mutually agreed that life is better together.
I'm not sure how this plays out in your
world, but as for me...I have tumbled down the days to arrive at the stark
realization that I need people.
Plain and simple.
And...there are people who need me.
Wouldn't it be something if all of us,
regardless of race, religion, political ideology or social status, somehow
became...interdependent?
The conclusion of the matter is this: if you
want to celebrate something today, celebrate Interdependence for it is the very
means by which our country came into being, by which our "independence"
is possible.
From Snapshots At St. Arbuck's Vol 3 ©2014 R.G. Ryan
