RIGHT OF REVOLUTION

Tomorrow is Independence Day or better known as the 4th of July. Every year we celebrate this holiday just as our founding fathers had suggested it should be celebrated. In a letter to his wife John Adams wrote:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.
(Now you may be a little confused by him saying July 2, but the legal separate form Brittan was on the second and the Declaration of Independence was signed in the 4th which is when we actually celebrate our Independence Day.)

And we still to this day celebrate our Independence with parades, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, illuminations (fireworks), from one end of the continent to the other. Look again at that last part of that sentence. When we declared our independence we only had the 13 colonies (now states) that stretch along the East Coast. And since then we have become a nation of 50 states (not including the District of Columbia and the 9 other territories that are associated with the United States) that stretch from one coast to another that occupies the majority of habitable lands in North America. Was John Adams just being facetious or did he know something then that we see now?

Of course one of the many reasons that we fought for our independence from Brittan was because the people of the 13 colonies where not allowed to expand more west due to the Treaty of Paris 1763 where Britain gained the land East of Appalachian Mountains (Britain claimed that the reasoning for this was because they did not have the man power to protect the colonist west of the Appalachians). So yes the people of the 13 colonies wanted to expand west and once they had won their independence they would set the plan into action. So the real question is how far west did they plan on going from the beginning or did it just keep snowballing?

Moving on, Independence Day is the one main AMERICAN holiday that ALL AMERICANS can celebrate regardless of religion, cultures, and etc. (considering that you recognize the main American holidays are Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July). Think about it, not every American celebrates Christmas (due to religious beliefs), New Years is a global holiday for the most part, not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving (for either religious reasons or even cultural i.e. Native Americans), but on the 4th of July there are no excuses, no religious taboos, no cultural interferences. There is no reason that any AMERICAN should not celebrate and embrace this day. And that my friends makes this holiday the one holiday that no matter what our political, religious, or cultural differences are, all of us for one day can celebrate being an American together. In what other part of the world can you see this happen? And this may friends is why it is so important not to take this country for granted, this is what makes the American way of life worth fighting for, preserving, and practicing as our four-fathers did.

We the people do not need to change our country we need to fix and restore it. We cannot let people slowly take away our freedoms or our character. We cannot close our eyes and watch our country become less of a democracy and more of an autocracy. We are slowly losing our power as the people because we forget about the history of our nation. And even though some of our history is brutal we cannot change it but we can and have fixed it. And the way that we the people have fixed our country has been from revolutionaries. From the founding fathers to Martin Luther King, these revolutionaries have fixed and formed this country to a nation of free men (and if you’re going to get all fem on me...free people). People cross oceans in blow up boats and cross borders to have a taste of the American way. Where else in the world do you see that? We are special America! We are all revolutionaries as long as we fight for our rights, for our freedom, for OUR way of life.

So tomorrow night when you are watching the fireworks remember why we light up the sky, remember the fight, remember why we Americans are here today!

Always On My Mind:

I think about it all the time. I think and think about it because it is always on my mind. Hiden behind my daily thoughts. It sits and haunts me like the ticking of a clock. It says nothing but I know it is there. It moves slowly without a care. When will it take it’s pray? When will I see my last day? How will I go and will I know before it closes in and takes my soul? I can take different paths each and every day but behind me it will always stay. Haunting, waiting, picking off it’s pray. It surrounds me as I lay. Taunting me as it takes another in my place. Testing me as I watch someone else go. Filling me with more emotions than I have ever known. Do I hate it or do I respect it so? For it shows the beauty of a vessels soul and why it is so hard to let it go.

DEATH- By Cara A Johnson 5-4-2011

It is true I think about death all the time and yes I wrote that rhyme. For those of you that didn’t know I do have a poetic soul but that is enough of that. Death, him and I have a strange relationship I can’t stop thinking about it and it just doesn’t seem to stop following me. Maybe it is the older you get the more you see it or maybe it has been there the whole time and until you lose someone close to you, your eyes haven’t been opened to it yet. I remember the first time I saw death. I was no more than 13. I was hanging out with some friends listing to a pianist as I sat in a chair and like a ghost something hit me and I began to cry right then and there. I went to the bath room to get a hold of myself but I knew something was wrong because crying out of nowhere wasn’t something I did out of thin air. The next morning my parents picked me up from my friend’s house that I spent the night at from the night before, without warning they were at the door. And as I looked into their eyes I knew that someone had died. It was my great-grandmother and the funny thing was that she died around the time that I was sitting in that chair listening to the pianist play his song but what is weirdest of all is that my great-grandmother was a pianist and use to play for the silent movies when she was younge (yes she was very old and it wasn’t a huge shock when she let go but it was still the first person close to me that I had to let go).

From that day forward death and I were pretty close. The next was my friend (my brother from another motha). I spent 7 years with him going on trips, having holidays together, watching him play sports, being there for him when some bitch made him hurt. I protecting him and fought with him like I was his sister and at the end of the day I loved him like he was my own blood. He was there for me when I needed someone the most and I will never forget the day that he died. Tragic was his death. Without warning his soul gave out and died. No car crash, no drugs, he was out in the sun playing on a water bug. He had some sort of seizure and died, death just took him with no reason why. This death shook my soul and tested my will to no end...I had lost a very good friend! I still cry every time I think about it. I remember the last conversation we had...I was seeing what him and his girlfriend where doing for that weekend. I wanted them to come house sit with me but they had planes to go seadooing so he passed. At the end of our talk he said to me "talk to you later brother" and I laughed and said the same. At least I got to talk to him before death claimed his name.

Next after that it was my husband’s dad but at least I got to meet him before he passed. Then my friends and now cousins’ mom, she was a lovely laid and always made me feel at home. However the next two took their toll, it was my friends mom who was a mother to us all and my uncle who was an inspiration to me. My other mother came to me late in my life during a time I was trying to transition from those petty high school years into real life. It was hard for me to make friends but I found one at work and her mother also took me in. She showed me another way to be...more understanding, less judging, and she let me be me. I could tell her anything and she helped me out a lot. She gave me a job to help me through school, she would cook dinner for me for no reason at all, she took me on trips and hardly let me pay, and she supported my marriage decision when most people didn’t and threw me one of her emphasize parties for my bridal shower without even a thought. But the greatest thing that she did was even when she was very sick, she threw me my baby shower with all the trimmings and all the thought. And on that day she said to me "I am so tried Cara, this will be the last party that I will ever be able to throw." I couldn’t have felt more special that the last one was for me. She was an amazing and very special to me.

And as for my uncle, he was the first person to treat me like an adult. When he would come down he would ask me about my thoughts on whatever issue was on his mind. He talked to me like a real person instead of some silly kid in junior high. He generally cared about what I had to say and he never made you feel stupid and in-fact made you feel great. My uncle was a very smart man a historian by trade and I believe it was because of him that I pick history as my major and it was because of him I graduated and got that B.A. (I can only hope that I get to really use it someday). The last time I saw him it was on my birthday 8 months pregnant and like 100 degrees that day. I went outside to get some air; sick as he was he followed me without a care. We sat down and didn’t say a word and then he asked me in his way "So Cara what are your thoughts about pregnancy?" It was the first non-annoying question of that day...not how are you feeling, are you tired, or any kind of generic question that just pissed off my nerves on that day. That was my uncle, clever in his ways he always knew how to get things out of me, he always knew what to say. He passed a few months ago and when I went to his "funeral" he still know what to say. On his funeral card his quote said:

I have always known
That at last I would
Take this road, but yesterday
I did not know that it would be today.


Narithtra, translated by Kenneth Rexroth,
One Hundred Poems from the Japanese

This quote set my mind at easy because I knew that he was okay. He was happy with the life he had and had accepted the road in front of him. And if there is one thing that I would say to death before he took my soul it would be "thank you for waiting to take my life because the one that I was allowed to live, I believe I had the time to make it mine. Sure I had my ups and my downs but when push comes to shove I enjoyed it all around. I may have not done everything I wanted to do but I accomplished as much as time would allow me too."

I dont not fear or hate death nor would have any regrets. Just like those before me I would know that I was loved, I would know that I tried, and I know (especially threw my son) I had left something behind. Death is not a horrible thing to me, it is the end of this world and hopefully the beginning of something other to be. I am not a religious person but I hope there is a god but if there is not I know that I will always live on for many years to come in the hearts and souls of those that carry my memory with them and that is enough for me to make death a precious and beautiful thing. Death gives you the chance to feel things that would never be able to feel for a person and shows all of us the human or soul that is inside but most of all it gives us a chance to honor someone’s life. No matter how we go death brings darkness but opens up our souls to a different light.

Thank you for reading and until next time!

MAN OR WOMAN WHEN DO YOU FEEL IT?

Our whole younge lives we sit around wait to be old and to grow up to be a man or woman. Some of us think that being a man or a woman consists of having sex and most of us make that mistake of assocciating sex with feeling like a man or woman. Or is it? So the question is now that we are in our late 20's or older what is it that makes you feel the most like a man or a woman? I can tell you that it is not the act of giving birth or being a mother. It is not having a career. It is not having a house or a car or a couch, a wash and dryer, or a anything else like that. All of these things make me feel like an adult but not a woman. Not shaving my legs, or cutting my hair, or waxing, or make-up, or a pretty dress makes me feel like a woman. No it is sex and sex alone that makes me feel like a woman but not just any sex. No it is sex with my husband and my husband alone that makes me feel like a woman. There is nothing like having my husband in between my legs and so on and so forth that makes me feel like a woman should. This is my truth...so the question is what is yours? what makes you feel like a man or a woman? I would love to know.

If i could only live my life half as well as they did...

Within the past six months I have had three wonderful people pass away from cancer. And as weird as this sounds i am glad that they did pass away from cancer because it gave me (and i am sure others) time to either get to know some better or gave me the ability to say good bye and to let them know what they meant to me. It maybe shocking for someone to say such a thing but if you really think about it passing like that is so beautiful and precious. Cancer is a horrible disease and not fun to watch but it is (to me at least) the most gracious way to die because (usually) it gives you time, and time is all we have. And just so you know no names will be given out of respect of those that have passed and their families but those of you that know me and my family (and when i say family i mean my friends too) you will know exactly who i am talking about.

The first to pass was someone that I did not know my whole life or even had much of a relationship with. However, that didnt make it any less hard having her go. She was so kind and warm and understanding. She would give someone the shirt off her back if someone asked for it because she knew she had another one at home but most importantly she made you feel like part of the family even if you had only entered into it for a short time. No matter how badly she was feeling she never refused your company and always made sure you were more than comfortable. She was a fighter her whole life and did it with such grace that I can not truly explain the loving feeling that you got from just being around her. She was my grad-school friends mom and an aunt by marriage but she was one of the greats in my eyes and an inspiration to single mothers and humanity in general. I am lucky to be apart of her family because they all have a piece of her in them and lucky to have known her, if only for a short while. Beautiful is the only word I can use to describe her.

The second one to pass may have been the hardest one for me and possible the most special. This woman took me in, trusted me with one of her most prized possession, gave me a job that helped me keep afloat in school, and gave me my heart back. She was like a second mother to me. The mother that never judged (well out load anyway), that you could be yourself around, and never had to lie to. Just knowing her made me a better person (and to many around her). She always believed that you never do something for someone expecting something in return. Not a difficult concept but hard to apply in real life...and she did it with such grace and perfection. I just thank god i got the chance to have let her know how much she meant to me within the 8 years that I was with her. She was the person that helped me develop into the last stages of my womanhood and I will never forget her grace.

The third is honestly what one would consider my idol. He was the smartest man I have ever come across so far in my life and probably will be the only. However, even though he was soooo smart, he had this ability to make you feel smarter than you thought you were just by talking to him. He never asked me a generic question even when I was a little girl and challenged and intrigued me as a person and a student that sitting down with him was much more fun than whatever the other kids and later on the other adults were doing. I would always know what kind of Christmas I was going to have depending if he was going to be there...if not I would be bored and quiet frankly ignored as the adults would talk about the same old stories...but if yes I knew that he would come up with some mind boggling question that would allow me to speak my mind and to show my opinion on worldly issues. He was the first person to treat me as a peer, an equal mind with its own thoughts and ideas. I will miss those conversations very much. He is the person that really got me into history but most importantly teaching because I want to be an inspiration like he was to me. He is my inspiration and i dare not disappoint him.

These are the things that I was able to learn from these people and was able to tell most of them. They each touched my life and lots of others as well. They say that the gods challenge those that are good...and in these cases they were the best. Suffering wasnt going to get them down and they were not ever going to give up without a fight and none of them ever did. At the funeral of my inspiration a quote was given: I HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN THAT AT LAST I WOULD TAKE THIS ROAD. BUT YESTERDAY I DID NOT KNOW IT WOULD BE TODAY.- NARIHIRA (9th century). Like them, this quote will always stay with me because even before cancer entered there lives they never wasted a moment of it. And when the cancer came they new what was ahead but never lived it like it was there last. But what they did know before their last was that they in one way or another were inspirations. Greatness is hard to define and I dare not try to define these three beautiful, gracious, inspirational people.

The Truth about Valentines Days!

Ah yes...February 14th is upon us and as i watch the tv and read and/or hear all of my friends talk about this time of year, i cant help but think about what a crook of shit it all is. Yes boys and girls i hate Valentines Day. Not because its a day dedicated to Love...no no i love love...but because it is a Day that is based on lies! LIES I SAY!

Now people have been celebrating what is now as Valentines Day for years for various reasons but not until the 20th century did the day really take off to what we see today...a consumer driven hallapolooza of reds and pinks and sometimes that bling bling created by the evil genius of the marketing warlords. Honestly people do you really believe that we celebrate V-day (as some companies would like you to believe) because of some historical religious reasons...like Christmas or Easter? And let me just say if you do...you will be horrible disappointed after reading what i have to say next. And a word to the wise dont take my word for it go research it yourself!

Now people let me enlighten you that when people say that Valentines Day was created by Hallmark it isnt some radical Hippie conspiracy theory nor is it because they are cold hearted people that dont believe in love...its because its the truth...give or take the Hallmark part (you'll see what i mean later).

ST.VALENTINE

Historically little is known about St. Valentine (some say they lack on information is do to the Medieval Ages*) or how many there actually were (yes boys and girls there was more than on St. Valentine) but Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred (see http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day). 

Nevertheless, what is know about the Valentines are as follows:

1. Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith in effectual, commended him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards, to be beheaded, which was executed on February 14, about the year 270...Since he was caught marrying Christian couples and aiding any Christians who were being persecuted under Emperor Claudius in Rome [when helping them was considered a crime], Valentinus was arrested and imprisoned. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner -- until Valentinus made a strategic error: he tried to convert the Emperor -- whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stoned; when that didn't do it, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate [circa 269].
   (see http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=159) 
2. Valentine of Terni^[9] became bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) about AD 197 and is said to have been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian. He is also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome (however some scholars believe that the Valentine of Rome and Terni are on and the same). (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day)
3. Of the third Saint Valentine, who suffered in Africa with a number of companions, nothing further is known. (see http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15254a.htm)

THE LEGEND

1. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. (see http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day)
2. One legend says, while awaiting his execution, Valentinus restored the sight of his jailer's blind daughter. Another legend says, on the eve of his death, he penned a farewell note to the jailer's daughter, signing it, "From your Valentine." (see http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=159)
3. Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured. (see http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day)

THE V-DAY BEGINNING

During the Medieval Ages, the beginning of courtly love began in Paris on Valentines Day in 1400. The court dealt with love contracts, betrayals, and violence against women. Judges were selected by women on the basis of a poetry reading. The earliest surviving valentine is a 15th-century rondeau written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife, which commences. At the time, the duke was being held in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415. And Valentine's Day is mentioned ruefully by Ophelia in Hamlet (1600–1601) (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day)

However, even though V-day as we know it started during the Medieval Ages, the celebration on love and fertility began with the Pagan cultures during the month, as we know it, of February or what they considered the first month of spring called the Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. (see http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day)

Nevertheless, Modern Valentines Day stems from the Medieval Ages where love note and courting for love began what we would call dating today. However, in the Medieval Ages on the actual day of February 14th was for the celebration of the death of St. Valentine...not what we see today.

MODERN VALENTINES DAY

In 1797 a limited amount of printed Valentines became available and in the 19th century in England Valentine became factory produced. Fancy Valentines were made with real lace and ribbons, with paper lace introduced in the mid-19th century. And In the UK, just under half the population spend money on their Valentines and around 1.3 billion pounds is spent yearly on cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts, with an estimated 25 million cards being sent. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day)

In The mid-19th century Valentine's Day trade was a harbinger of further commercialized holidays in the United States to follow. In the second half of the 20th century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts in the United States. Such gifts typically include roses and chocolates packed in a red satin, heart-shaped box. In the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine's Day as an occasion for giving jewelry.The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately 190 million valentines are sent each year in the US. Half of those valentines are given to family members other than husband or wife, usually to children. When you include the valentine-exchange cards made in school activities the figure goes up to 1 billion, and teachers become the people receiving the most valentines. In some North American elementary schools, children decorate classrooms, exchange cards, and are given sweets. The greeting cards of these students sometimes mention what they appreciate about each other. The rise of Internet popularity at the turn of the millennium is creating new traditions. Millions of people use, every year, digital means of creating and sending Valentine's Day greeting messages such as e-cards, love coupons or printable greeting cards. An estimated 15 million e-valentines were sent in 2010. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day)

CONCLUSION

So after all of that what happened to Valentines Day??? I will tell you...it went form a celebration of life and fertility...to a celebration of a Saints death...and ending in a multi-million dollar industry that is instilled in us as grade school students to promote unnecessary gift giving and spending on a holiday that has turn love into materialistic fantasy of love. Valentines Day went from a celebration of life and new beginnings to card and candy and even worse forced confessions of love. If you want to celebrate life and new beginnings and even love on February 14th then do so without the lame ass gift, cards and candy. Money is easy...feelings are hard...dont take the easy way out. So for all you out there that dont have a Valentine dont let if get you down just celebrate your life and remind yourself that life is good...love life. And for those of you that do have a Valentine remember that no gift is great than just knowing that you have someone that is there for you everyday not just on Valentines Day!