neurological dryer lint

don't say this often enough - i am silly grateful for Lifespring. there are occasional, brief flashes of how much i take for granted the incredible wisdom of the leadership there... the universal acceptance they show people as they walk in the door... mornings when i get up, try to figure out what to wear to church, think 'is this shirt nice enough?' and then the thought follows 'no one's going to care - it doesn't matter'. i realize that's a lot more common now... i guess it's like the internet... i just take it for granted that church has evolved into a place like that for me.

so. it's been interesting as i've read Obama's book and i feel my patriotic muscles twitching, i'm in church on sunday and Dick Alexander talks about how America was born out of rebellion, and individualism and rejection of absolute authority is really in our nation's soul. that element of my character that has caused a riff or two with the people that have been authorities in my life, something i don't bother to fight off very much.

i realize why God has to actually command me to submit to authority. there is no natural urge for me to do so otherwise. i hear "respect your elders" and i want to laugh; you're telling me that just because someone is ~20 years older than me, they deserve my respect? what have they done to earn it?

that isn't to say i don't respect anyone older than me. i respect my mother and father because they are incredible people - they raised me with love and encouragement, sacrificed for me, took the trouble to try to teach me how to live with compassion, brought me along to experience great stuff while i was growing up.

another example, though. cops? i appreciate the fact that they're out trying to protect me, and also that they get a paycheck to do so. but i've been disrespected by 85% of the officers i've encountered in my life, and it's left me with a fairly low level of reverence for the guys wearing blue.

i don't know if this exists in me because i'm an American; i doubt it - i think Dick was trying to explain that we are surrounded by this attitude, we hear stories from history about the rejection of English rule and those men are heralded as heroes. our government is founded on mistrust and a healthy acknowledgement of the evil and lust for power in the hearts of mankind - the reason we have checks and balances in the first place.

my brother had a very similar upbringing to mine - i'm curious to see how he will view authority when he's in his twenties. i'm also curious to see how our kids will end up, considering Renee doesn't exactly share this view with me - she attributes her "respect your elders" mindset to her upbringing and the values her parents considered important. which makes me wonder - my parents didn't really say much about it one way or the other, from what i remember, and as both my mom and dad possess very different political views, i don't see myself as really a balance of the two of them.

what do you all think?