Date: 2014-11-01
To: Cultural Norms
Miles today: 0.0

It¢s been a month since I finished my AT thru hike. I think I¢ve finished tweaking my posts about the hike itself and thought I was done with this journal. Now I think this might be a good place to write down some of my current thoughts as they pop up since many are thoughts I pondered while hiking the AT. This might also help me better achieve my main reason for journaling in the first place! (See my April 18th post.) So, I may periodically add to this journal as I feel prompted. :-)Today I went for a hike along one of the Civil War battlefield trails nearby. Hiking along the trail, I came upon a young couple taking pictures of their three young children posed very cutely on a fallen tree log. When I offered to take a picture of all five of them together, the Mom and Dad first declined, saying something about not wanting their picture taken. So I asked the kids: ¢Wouldn¢t it be great if Mom and Dad were in the picture, too?!¢ They of course agreed, so Mom and Dad posed with their kids, and I think I took some great family pictures! :-)I quickly hiked on. After I left them, I realized that I could have also thanked the parents for getting their kids outside to explore nature and I could have encouraged them to continue to do so as the kids grow older. That led to having thoughts about the educational opportunity of this battlefield park, too. That led to thoughts about why the Civil War was fought, which led to thoughts about a book I just finished about the American Revolutionary War. In his book ¢Revolutionary Summer - The Birth of American Independence,¢ author Joseph Ellis covers the intertwining of the political and military events of the American Revolution between May and October, 1776. I¢ve often thought that it is difficult for us to really understand the motivations and actions of people who lived, or live, in different cultures and social norms than our own. We need to be careful about judging them based on our current culture and social norms. Ellis brings up that point in trying to help us understand the historical figures in the book, in both their political and their military decisions. One such glaring issue around America¢s fight for independence was slavery. How could they have been so devoted to freedom from British rule and ignore the lack of freedom for so many people in our own country-to-be? Women¢s rights and even the right to vote for all white males were other freedom issues along with slavery that were paid little attention, or at least put on the back burner. Ellis writes that those issues were discussed at least privately, but not addressed in the Continental Congress because the leaders thought they could not reach any consensus on those issues and discussion would distract from the issue of independence from British rule. But Ellis also points out, or at least I thought about it while reading his book, that many folks of that era who were ardent supporters for freedom were so steeped in their cultural norms of restricted freedom for women and slaves that they didn¢t consider their freedom at issue, or at least found it easy to push such thoughts into the background.That got me thinking about today. What things in my life - thoughts, attitudes, behaviors - do I think or do simply because they are norms in the culture with which I¢m familiar, but if put under a bright light of truth would show to be inappropriate? What things in my life that I don¢t even consciously think about would be revealed to be inappropriate? For what inappropriate things in our culture today will future historians try to partially excuse us because we just didn¢t know better? (Note that I wasn¢t thinking about any one thing in particular. Until I investigate further, I don¢t even know what they all are!)Are they restricting my ability to experience pure joy today? Are they hindering my ability to be a ¢good and faithful servant¢?Do I have the courage to investigate? :-)