🇺🇸 Digging Ditches

I've heard many times over the years that independence is no longer a treasured virtue. I don't think people can understand it until it's taken away. Most people alive today have not had to literally fight for that independence. Most people, I believe, choose to believe that our founding fathers literally fought for it. And our military, whether by brain or brawn, continues that tradition.

For myself, I don't think I would recognize my lost independence until it was taken away from me.

I think I could sense it.

I think I would recognize a heightened sense of awareness but...

...I think that the ditch would have been (possibly already is) dug long before I recognized how deep me and my countrymen were deep down in it. It's kind of like snow. At 33 degrees, water is liquid but drop it 1 degree to 32 and it's frozen. It seems like it just happened but it was really always happening.

I wonder if our country still has the resolve it would need to dig itself out.

I don't know exactly how the people (famous or not) who collaborated on the United States Constitution were able to get along so well that they put together a document that has had the ability to adapt over time. The US currently has the longest codified constitution in the world.*

The US has a long way to go before we become considered one of the longest-running regimes globally (879 years left to catch the Byzantines), but every one of those other governments ruled with fear against their own people.

There are several genius parts of the US Constitution, but the most glaring to me is the overall structure that acknowledged the weaknesses that humans in power have and guarded against it by putting a system in place that checks itself.

The system allows us to "strive for perfection and settle for greatness." Some would argue that is a loser's mentality. I say it's a professional mentality. Only amateurs search for perfection because they're scared to do the work. Perfection is never achieved. Even the Bill of Rights says, "in Order to form a more perfect Union." We have 27 Amendments. For comparison, India has over 100 in less than 80 years. America is doing something correct.

"There is so much wrong in America today," I often hear.

I often think, "At what point in time and history has there not been so much wrong?" I know people from other countries are still literally risking their lives to come here.

I'm good striving over here.

Things change but individuals will always strive for what they believe is in their best interest because we all have egos. America rewards that strive. You can be 100% entrepreneur, 100% 401(k) job, or a little bit of both if you choose. The point is that it's your choice. It's why people still fight for this place. It's why people still fight to get to this place. Every other system in the world only cares about your ego in how far it can help the system.

America rewards the strive.

America cares about giving you a system to support your ego because the system is designed to believe in the best possible potential for each individual. The system is designed to allow you to show off your "strive." It's uncapped.

People (left, right, up, and down) have been trying to destroy (knowingly or not) the American system since it was created. They did it in the past, they're doing it now, and it will continue.

I continue to be in awe of the US Constitution because they knew "someone" would always think they knew what was best for everyone else and needed to guard against it. When that happens, history shows us that "someone" tries to make everyone like themself. I don't know if that's dangerous because I've never lost my independence. I've never lived in any form of pseudo-socialist state, but...

...I do know that each person knows what's best for them. Even if they don't, they think that they do. I also know that when someone tells me what to do, I lose my mind a little bit.

I like having the option to dig my ditch.

I like seeing where my ditch could lead.

Whether I die easy or die hard while digging my ditch, someone will be able to say that I lived. I'll leave my shovel to another American. They can continue digging in my ditch in the way that they choose or they can start a whole new ditch or jump to someone else's.

America doesn't tell you which ditch to go dig (unless you ask for one). America lets us choose which ditches we need to get to diggin'.

*San Marino has a 415+ year old constitution. However, it's like 30 square miles with a population of 30,000; so...