Don't wait for the crowd to applaud...

Don't wait for the crowd to applaud, look into your heart and start cheering for yourself...

So often we identify ourselves using a litany of external parameters. I'm Irish, I'm a Bostonian, I'm a baby-boomer, I'm a liberal... Most of these attributes are used to describe who I am; by me to others, and by others to categorize me. You're saying, "OK, I don't see anything wrong here..." and there is nothing wrong with using terms to describe yourself for reference.

The problem comes when you start to edit yourself because of them. When you can't acknowledge the Yankees played a great game because you are a Red Sox fan, then you are taking the "identity" to extremes.

People are afraid of speaking their own truth, because they fear being ostracized by a group with which they identify themselves. "Are you with us or against us?" They are asked. If not asked outright, the question is implied by non-verbal tactics like "the cold shoulder," or "stonewalling," or "the silent treatment." Most people are herded back into the corral by this alone. When someone continues to stray from the party line they are spoken of as, "a fair-weather fan," "He's not wrapped too tight," "a freak," "odd," or the worst, "a loner."

The power the group holds is only through the strength of its numbers and the worst crime is that of an identifying member showing independence of thought/word/deed. When a group member crosses over the line separating the circle of us into the circle of THEM, this weakens the "in" group! It can't be tolerated!!!!!

Worse yet, most of us are so indoctrinated that we police ourselves, and here is where the trouble really exists. "I can't talk like that now, I'm a married woman," "I can't vote for a Muslim," "I don't take any crap!" and countless more ways we follow our training/brain-washing with sub-conscious rules.

The truth is there is no circle of THEM. There is only the circle of US. The circle of them is an illusion, that only exists in your mind. The perception that there are others thinking the same thing is simply your own thought, it does not exist "out there," only "in here." The demands of your personal identifying group(s) can be wiped clean in an instant if you have the courage to begin to see yourself only as a member of the Human Race.... all ONE...

Today, look at people you have always perceived as different or, "one of THEM," and seek unity. There are far more qualities that you share than there are areas of unlikeness...if you choose to look...

Duffy