Thursday, July 16, 2009

I'm Taking A Break From Politics


"The important thing is to concentrate upon what you can do - by yourself, upon your own initiative." Harry Browne

I won't need to elaborate too much on the title of my post, but in a nutshell, I am not going to donate money nor involve myself in politics at least for the next few years. I think my work over the past eight years speaks for itself. What more do I need to say?

For the first time in a long time, I have a focus on where I want to go in life which is to get into physical education or coaching in some capacity. There are so many things I want to do that I put off or didn't focus on because I was more concerned with the well-being of my country and world. In retrospect, I should have done this around five years ago. But I was an idealist wrapped up in saving the world. Had I known then what I know now, I wouldn't have wasted my time working on campaigns, donating to causes I believe in, spending countless hours at rallies, protests, and events. What did I get for it? Not much in the way of liberty because sadly most people refuse to listen. It is like people lack self-respect and empathy for others.

That being said, I figure it will be better to let things develop as they may and if people have to figure it out the hard way, then so be it. I can't save the world anyways. That was done around 2,000 years ago. I will still follow up on current events and keep in touch. But this is my time and my life. I am going to seize the moment and run with it.

The funny thing is that yes, you can have freedom in an unfree world.
I smack myself on the forehead everytime I think back to reading this book in 2001, yet failed to apply the principles from it until recently. Politics is a detriment to freedom, not an ends to a means.

Where others don't do well in bad times due to any number of factors such as only seeing themselves being one thing their whole lives, being told what to do and what to think, etc..., I have learned to flow like water. I will not allow Washington's recession to affect my life. I want to travel, learn to scuba dive, sky-dive, ride horses again, collect muscle cars when money and time will allow such. I am 33. Most people at 33 have already been married at least once. I have never even been in a relationship. I was terribly shy around girls when I was a teenager and in my 20's, it was school, work and politics that took almost all my time. Needless to say, I'm in the driver's seat now and you can either come along with me for the ride or get left behind.

3 comments:

Deacon David Oatney said...

If it is any consolation (or probably more precisely, sympathetic notation) I do have an understanding of where you are coming from.

At 33 (your age) I have been married for six wonderful years, but prior to that politics took up most of my spare time to the detriment of other things, and likely at the cost of more than one relationship.

I love politics too much to be drawn away from it entirely, but I have also learned the hard way that when we involve ourselves in politics, we are meant to be citizen-servants. We have to do other things with our lives aside from politics, or life becomes a stale shell missing so many important things.

I am thankful to have a spouse supportive of my political involvement, but she expects something in return-consideration from me that I will put our family and home first in all of my decisions about politics.

Teri's Blog said...

Are you going into football? I was just at Boise State were they have the blue grass.

Chris F. said...

Teri, I'm looking into the possibility of working with the football team in their video department.