Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Invisible Prisons

My last post talked about prisons of the mind. I did an earlier post on November 8, 2008 about invisible boundaries. Both have relevant lessons for all of us.

We learn from our experiences and our environments. However, far too often we learn of what doesn't work, what we shouldn't try, what we failed at, etc. Why don't we spend some energy on learning what works. And more importantly, why don't we spend more time sharing those valuable lessons with others.

Part of the problem with this is we are educated from early on to rely on outside influences such as the school system, the government, the company, the health care system, etc. When what we really should be relying on is our family, our friends, our neighbors, and our faith. Restrictions vs. enablement, entitlement vs. self-sufficiency, reactive vs. proactive. Well, you get the idea. These are lessons taught to us.

When life or the system continually beats us down, we start succumbing to these external forces rather than relying on our inner strength, our drive, our willpower, our belief systems. Once the behavior is witnessed and reinforced, it becomes a recurrent theme. This theme over time becomes an invisible boundary, a internal prison that we confine ourselves to.

So when did this happen to you first? Your childhood? From your parents? In school? When did you stop dreaming about what 'you want to do when you grow up'? Maybe it was during college or after getting your first real job. The reality of working for someone else who controls when you work, when you have vacation, what functions you perform, - all for a meager existence that we may call "a living". Is it really though? Or is it really a confinement that we may never escape from? Ultimately, a prison that the only parole we get is when we die. That is not a living! That is merely an existence, a controlled one with invisible prison bars around us.

America used to be called the land of the free. That is hard to imagine now - what freedom really is. It certainly resembles the land of the enslaved, entitled servants. We are getting more and more dependent on the government, the credit system, the medical and big pharma community, and other systems powered by big multinational conglomerate corporations.

When did we lose our independence? When we stopped using our imagination, our ingenuity, our collective knowledge base that can solve problems! We can get it back any time we want to.

As always, the choice is yours.


You have seen many things, but have paid no attention;
your ears are open, but you hear nothing.

But this is a people plundered and looted,
all of them trapped in pits
or hidden away in prisons.
They have become plunder,
with no one to rescue them;
they have been made loot,
with no one to say, "Send them back."

Which of you will listen to this
or pay close attention in time to come? Isaiah 42:20,22-23 (NIV)


If you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at the address below.
Email: DeltaInspire@hushmail.com

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