What do you stand up for? Human rights? Love? Truth? For another? Harmony?
The world is the way it is because enough of us have not stood up for the right things.
Finally, ask, what do you want to stand up for?
Humanity as a whole depends on each one of us making a stand.
I stand up for others, love, truth, justice, freedom, expression, creativity, individuality, my family, my friends... ideas, inquiry, exploration, self-determination, peace...
When I ponder these questions this quote comes to mind:
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)
Because I know that sometimes I haven't stood up for anything at all. Sometimes I've stayed silent, looked the other way, feigned ignorance, and even taken a stand for "evil".
I remember growing up in church, this quote being thrown around:
If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
And it comes to mind again now. Not so much that you'll fall for anything--not anymore. But, more so, that you're life will lack direction, meaning, purpose... If you don't take a stand. That's how I feel. Without these... convictions... life can loose it's luster, and you begin to feel ineffective, or unimportant, or as if there is nothing specific that you can do in the world. And I'm not talking about grand, historically relevant, iconic stands (like ghandi, mandella, the guy in tiananmen square)--although that would be incredible, but in every day life, in every choice you make are you standing up for love, for equality, for truth, for justice, or are you doing nothing?
Me? I make my stands. But now, that I am more mindful, I want to make more of them.
I want to stand up more for the poor and the oppressed as well.
And, I know in so many ways, I don't stand up for myself. But I want to and I am going to start to.
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