THE
RECUSANT NATURE OF
BEING A PARENT OF VIGILANCE
by
Cliff McKenzie
GROUND
ZERO PLUS 1161 DAYS,--New York, NY, Monday, November
16, 2004--I
was struck by the word "recusant" this morning. Words
are delivered to me daily through a free subscription to various
dictionary sites.
Today's
word was "recusant" and its meaning is to refuse to
submit to authority.
I gave the
word "recusant" the old spider and fly in the
web look
At first
glance this may sound appealing. Free people are free to refuse
any authority. Isn't freedom all about the "right to choose,"
including good and bad, right and wrong?
I looked
at the word for a long time, the old spider and fly in the web
kind of look. I think I was fly and the word, "recusant,"
the spider. It snuck up on me and leaped out from the computer
screen, attacking my senses and prodding me to think deeper
than I normally might about its meaning and impact.
According
to my Merriam-Webster on-line definition, the word hails back
to Henry VIII in 1534. Old cantankerous Henry defied the status
quo of the day and split away from the Catholic Church and made
himself head of the Church of England. King Henry didn't like
surrendering to any authority, not even religious authority.
But, change
didn't come simply by the King's decree that there was "a
new Church in town." There were people who refused to go
to the Church of England church. King Henry made church attendance
mandatory, so it wasn't a matter of "choice" about
what you did on Sunday.
However,
there are those who refuse any authority, including the King's
and his alleged "head of the Church of England status."
Those who didn't attend mandatory church were labeled "recusants."
...and made
himself the head of the Church of England
Over time,
the word evolved to mean refusing authority of any kind- like
telling the teacher to go jump in the lake when told to sit
down and be quiet, or, telling the boss you're not going to
do the report he or she needs by 5 p.m. because you "don't
feel like it."
While these
examples are absurd, they remind us that any defiance of any
authority is grounds for being a "recusant."
In terms
of Vigilance, many might claim their right to refuse to be "vigilant"
on the grounds of "fundamental personal freedoms"
guaranteed by the Constitution as well as the "natural
right" of any human being to refuse anything for any reason.
There are
those who feel that "vigilance" is the duty and responsibility
of others such as the police, military, government, fire department,
the neighbors across the street, the school, the church ad infinitum.
Since true
Vigilance is like a religion because it is necessary to employ
it twenty-four hours a day, three-hundred and sixty-five days
a year, there are countless numbers who have "better"
things to do with their time and energy.
These people
refuse to accept the "Universal Authority" of Vigilance.
Vigilance
exists outside their particular mind set because it interferes
with other "choices" and other "rights"
that come in conflict with the demands of Vigilance.
These people
are Vigilance Recusants. That is, they refuse to accept and
deliver the duty of being a Parent, Citizen or Loved One of
Vigilance.
They refuse
to be on daily and nightly guard against infecting themselves,
their children or loved ones with the Triad of Terrorism--Fear,
Intimidation and Complacency.
Parents
of Vigilance are not recusants
They do
not guard their Second Thoughts so that they might convert their
First Thoughts from Fear to Courage, from Intimidation to Conviction
and from Complacency into Right Actions that benefit the Children's
Children's Children.
These people
do not accept the role they have Sentinels of Vigilance to future
generations because they are more concerned with self-satisfactions
that feather their personal hats and do not require them to
stop and think about whether their words, actions or deeds are
of benefit to the children or their children's children.
This lack
of compliance to the Universal Vigilance Authority allows them
the "privilege" of being abusive both emotionally
and physically to their children and others around them, for
they have no responsibility to not contaminate their environments
with Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.
Such people
are not subscribers to the natural born instincts of all humans
to "leave this world just a little better" for the
next generation. To adhere to such a belief would be a surrender
to the Universal Vigilance Authority, for the UVA forces the
evolving person to take inventory of his or her actions and
deeds in light not just of what it brings to them today, but
in a greater light of what it provides future generations.
Being a
Parent, Grandparent, Citizen or Loved One of Vigilance assumes
far too great a task for the Vigilance Recusant because it means
that any act of selfishness must be countered by an act of selflessness,
and any thought that might enflame the Beast of Terror must
be quenched with the antidotes of Vigilance to protect the children
and others from volcanic eruptions of emotional and physical
natures that can bruise, scar or cripple a child's self worth
and self respect.
Sentinels
of Vigilance think of the right actions to take for the
welfare of the children
Vigilance--the
art of thinking more of what is right for future generations
than yourself by at least One Percent--is a cumbersome yoke
for vast numbers of people who are far too busy trying to figure
out their own self values and self worth's.
To surrender
to the Universal Vigilance Authority is like being told by King
Henry VIII to go to the Church of England or suffer the consequences.
But there
are those who don't question the Universal Vigilance Authority.
These Sentinels
of Vigilance know in their hearts and souls that all the "true
values" of life are vested in the children--in the innocence
of those who expect their parents and loved ones to pave a safer,
more prosperous path for them.
This path
includes both the emotional and physical, for the greatest danger
to the evolution of any human being is a sense of personal belittlement,
where he or she considers he or she is "less than,"
or "not as worthy as," or a "victim of"
life's cruel and harsh chapters.
A
child becomes recusant when he or she feels less than
or belittled
Such a
child retreats into himself or herself. Such a child becomes
a "recusant" because in the child's eyes all "authority"
seeks only to use and abuse the child, and, having no respect
or trust in such authority, comes to believe that sating the
self by the self is the true and only real reward.
Helping
others is left to the bleeding hearts, in the "recusant
child's" mind.
So one
cannot expect hoards of peoples to rush and sign the Pledge
of Vigilance and then employ its principles daily, weekly, annually.
To embrace the Pledge of Vigilance one must accept the Universal
Vigilance Authority and admit that there is a duty and responsibility
that exceeds all human authority to protect the children from
emotional and physical harm, and, further, that such harm can
be condensed into three distinct categories: Fear, Intimidation
and Complacency.
The few
who realizes that Vigilance is everyone's duty and responsibility
eagerly live their lives with only the children's future as
their primary concern. They make daily decisions not on just
how this or that will benefit them, but how this or that will
help them benefit the future of the children. Thus, their selfishness
may be 49 percent but their selflessness is 51 percent. They
do what needs to be done for themselves to be able to do what
needs to be done for others.
That may
be as simple as biting their tongues instead of lashing out
with an invective that creates a lash whip on the soul of a
child or another human being.
Parents
of Vigilance take time to bond.....
That may
be as mundane as stopping everything and kneeling and hugging
one's child or loved one and taking the precious and priceless
moments to bond with the child from one soul to another so that
the child knows you are "not so busy" as to exclude
and deny the child access to your heart.
.....with
their children
There are
other countless examples that can be listed, but the principle
remains simplistic. The Sentinel of Vigilance assumes--at all
costs--the duty of respecting the child's future more than he
or she concerns himself or herself with his or her own present
needs. This balance is controlled by One Percent, for a Sentinel
of Vigilance has only to give One Percent more love than not,
One Percent more respect than not, One Percent more time than
not to validate the role of Sentinel of Vigilance.
So, today,
we all have a choice, as we do each and every day.
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