POSTSCRIPT
A Formal Invitation to Join Us at Freedom Focused in a
Global Self-Action Leadership REVOLUTION (Reformation)
This postscript was first added to the SAL Textbook for its SIXTH (6th) Edition. Its comeuppance was the result of a poignant, personal experience I had while traveling internationally in the summer of 2019, and led directly to the composition of this capstone essay, which I pen by way of invitation in the form of a postscript to the textbook's manuscript.
To my chagrin and embarrassment, however, the airport I arrived back home at—in my own country (The United States of America)—was dirty, musty-smelling, disorganized, inefficient, and sported a lackluster milieu of unmotivated employees who clearly lacked leadership, management, direction, and incentive to put forth their best efforts.
On behalf of the city and state where the airport was located, and to a lesser extent my nation as a whole, I was—as an American citizen—embarrassed.
Then, to make matters worse, we missed our connecting flight—despite having two-and-a-half hours (150 minutes) with which to process our baggage and make our customs declaration, which was ample time to complete these two, straight-forward tasks. There were, after all, no weather-related issues or mechanical snafus. Nevertheless, the airport's staff was so incompetent and inefficient with their (and our) time that they embarrassingly failed to get the job done.
As a result, Lina and I had to stay overnight in our connecting city and then arise in the wee hours (3:45 a.m.) the following morning to catch the next available flight to our destination city. As you can imagine, it was not an ideal travel experience; nor was it my idea of fun.
As I reflect back on this experience—and many others like it in my home country—I am disappointed with, depressed by, and even a little aghast at the disorganization, incompetence, laziness, and lack of cleanliness, initiative, and leadership I so often observe when frequenting public places throughout my nation. I especially feel this way when I visit the airports of major cities, which should serve as crown jewels and atmospheric ambassadors of the United States as a whole.
If only airports were the only offenders!
I am continually troubled by the negative performance patterns of countless organizations throughout the United States and beyond, of which this airport's manifold issues were merely emblematic. While many positive and productive examples concurrently exist among these negative samples, our work remains cut out for us—speaking both individually and collectively.
As I found myself brooding somewhat miserly over the melancholy engendered by the sorry state of this airport—any my inability to directly do anything to change or improve the situation—I realized more than ever how desperately SAL is needed throughout our deeply troubled nation and planet.
I recognize and acknowledge that an inconvenient airport experience is among the least of our troubles in the United States and throughout the Western world and beyond. Obviously, far greater challenges permeate virtually every corner of the globe. By comparison, my petty airport drama is an extremely minor issue.
Why then, does it matter?
The answer to this question is found in the fact that the seeds of our nation and world's biggest problems are not germinated in ruined marriages, corrupted corporations and governments, murderous dictatorships, prison cells, skid row back alleys, or even troubled airports.
The seeds of our deepest issues are implanted in the minds, hearts, and habits of individuals who, in-turn, infect relationships, homes, neighborhoods, schools, businesses, communities, states, nations, the world-at-large, and yes—even airports—with preventable obstacles and self-inflicted adversity and wounds—one neglected duty and responsibility at a time.
I don't know about you, but I've grown tired of it. In too many cases, we are failing to live up to our personal possibilities and potential—our noble birthright.
We can do better—both individually and collectively.
And we must do better if we are to transform cultures and change the world.
Human beings possess vast storehouses of capacity, creativity, talent, and potential. We also possess extraordinary opportunities to change, grow, and improve. The time has come for all of us to start digging deeper within ourselves to tap more fully into these deeply imbedded existential endowments.
How tragic it is when we abandon our noble birthright and settle for less than we are capable. How unfortunate it is when we choose to exhibit a version of ourselves that is a mere shadow of our massive potential. What sorry and sullen depths the human race often allows itself to sink into despite possessing the capacity to rise to unspeakably majestic heights.
Emerson once noted that: a healthy discontent is good.
"A healthy discontent is good."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Properly channeled, a healthy discontent can inspire the human spirit to transform one's environment in enlightened, positive, and productive ways. After all, it was out of a measure of my own discontent that I have felt such an obsessive and passionate yearning to create this comprehensive Life Leadership textbook—and have then persisted in refining, polishing, and perfecting it over and over again (now in its SEVENTH Edition) until it finally fills the measure of its creation in benefitting my billions of brothers and sisters throughout the world.
I sincerely love my country—the United States of America—and I deeply care about this world of which I am but the minutest slice. I truly value all of its inhabitants—every last one of us—and I seek earnestly to do my part to make it a better place.
Someday, when my spirit is finally set free of my earthen tabernacle and my body is set to rest six feet under the surface of the Earth's crust, I hope that this planet will be a better place—if only in some small way—because I lived here for a while.
I hope the same for YOU.
My native countrymen and women, my fellow citizens of the world, and my dear friends: we have got to do better and we have got to be better in the future than we have done in the past. Our future—and that of our posterity—depends upon our commitment to excellence, improvement, positive change, and productive service to each other.
I therefore invite YOU to join me—and us at Freedom Focused—in a REVOLUTION. Not a violent political revolution, nor an awkward social or unnecessary cultural upheaval; but a personal reformation of CHARACTER and WILL—an entirely peaceful movement that positively and productively transforms the human mind, heart, and spirit into all it is capable of becoming.
After all, according to Will Durant—that great historian of the 20th century—that is the only real revolution that mankind can authentically and successfully foment.
"The only real revolution is the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints." (1)
—Will Durant
Join us, and TOGETHER we will make the world a better, brighter, and more beautiful, peaceful, and pleasant place to live—a place where we can mutually nod our heads in an affirmative acknowledgement of our accelerating ascent, rather than shake our heads in despairing disgust at our deepening decline.
We can do this...
Here's to a Freedom Focused and Self-Action Leadership REVOLUTION / Reformation.
Huzzah!
—Dr. JJ
Author's Note: This is the 512th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 296th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 511 FF Blog Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS
Click HERE to access the FULL TEXT of Dr. JJ's Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection
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