Independence

As someone that has been fiercely independent most of my life, today I find myself considering what it is we celebrate when we celebrate Independence Day.

There is, of course, that revolutionary document:

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

That is worth celebration...and worth remembering. We have an obligation to throw off ("alter or abolish") our government when it no longer serves us.

But I have been thinking about independence in a more personal way too. I wonder if we don't hold independence too high in our hierarchy. Maybe dependence -- at least some forms of it -- (or at least inter-dependence) is okay in some forms. Maybe, like with government, we are obligated to uphold our bonds until those bonds no longer serve us. Sometimes, those bonds require us to depend on one another.

So today, as I remember my obligation to keep my government in line, I celebrate my choice to be both independent and not-so-independent.

Enjoy the fireworks.