The Flame of Liberty
Today we celebrate an act of rebellion that led to the birth of a “new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the idea that all men are created equal,” as Abraham Lincoln put it in his Gettysburg address. He gave this address at the dedication of the great cemetery created to honor those fallen in the bruality of a terrible civil war.
We are witness, probably much more than we would like to be, to the unfolding drama of another kind of civil war in our American society of 2023. However you place yourself on the continuum of the varying views, we should take a moment to remember the Enlightenment ideals that underpin our civil life. However much we have failed to live up to those ideals they remain as guideposts for a democracy based on that which is essential and inviolable in every person.
Tucked away in the Luxembourg Gardens, and mounted on an island in the Seine, scale models of the Statue of Liberty surprise the unsuspecting tourist. So too, this monument to the flame of liberty reminds us of the deep bond between France and the United States, forged not so much of war as of an ideal.
On this day let your act of rebellion be one of breaking free of entrenched convictions and seeking the flame of liberty that is ours every time we lay claim to our innate Beingness - and claim it not only for ourselves but for everyone else in our world, most especially the ones who irritate, or aggravate, or annoy. In this way we find a dependable path to the only freedom that matters : The light of that freedom will illuminate your life and will fill up the world.