In Awe

Welcome back to the Job of Work after what we hope was a wonderful weekend. In the States we celebrated the courage and audacity of a few to risk everything against the then mightiest country on Earth in the pursuit of freedom and, of all things, happiness. Talk about going for it! Not only did these men put it all on the line for what they believed in, they could write, too. Take a moment sometime to read the Declaration of Independence. Without doubt, it’s one of the most brilliant Dear John letters of all time, with an amazing first sentence:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Thomas Jefferson, its author, was just warming up. His second sentence outshines the first:

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.

Great use of caps, no? Think Microsoft Word would let you keep those words capitalized without a fight? ‘Creator’ for sure, but what about ‘Rights’, ‘Life’, ‘Liberty’, and ‘Happiness’? Am I alone in this or do you find Word to be a bit fascist in its unwillingness to let us express ourselves our way? A topic for a later time.

Jefferson goes on to outline a series of transgressions perpetuated by the Kind of England to justify the break-up – ‘For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent’ and ‘He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people’ to name just two – and ends with a line designed to bond the hearts and minds of the 56 who would eventually sign the Declaration:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Way to bring it, Tom! Talk about drawing a line in the sand, setting a bold goal and galvanizing a group of individuals into a unified team to attempt to accomplish something seemingly impossible. Anyone taking notes?

And while we in this country are still struggling to find the true meaning of ‘all men are created equal’, it is a time to reflect on the courage of those who would stand up and declare to the world: We choose freedom! We choose to pursue our own life! We choose happiness!

What do you choose?

Happy Birthday, America. Let’s hope you – and we – continue to grow wiser with age.