DECLARATION OF TRANSCENDENCE

© 1995 Connie Cook Smith

We the People of Earth,

in order to enjoy friendship,

find peace, and create happiness,

do hereby call upon each other

to awaken to a Greater Reality.

Let us now heed the call to Transcendence.

Let us respond to the quality of human goodness,

which transcends the separateness

of all nations, all races, all religions.

As one human being to another,

let us acknowledge Equality.

Let us simply declare to one another:

"You can do things I cannot do.

I can do things you cannot do."

In this manner, every human being is truly equal to another.

Every human being is a complement to another.

Every human being is an asset to another.

And, if we so choose,

every human being is a friend to another.

We all eat and eliminate,

enjoy and suffer, win and lose.

We all laugh and cry and need and hurt and have and give and celebrate.

In any given moment,

our differences are what make us interesting, valuable, and enjoyable

to each other.

In this universal reality,

not one of us is more important,

nor less important,

than any other Being on the planet.

We are infinitely diverse, and it is fun.

But also, we are deeply alike, and it is beautiful.

LET US REFLECT THEN...

on the philosophies that fracture our one-ness,

ruin our friendships, destroy our peace,

and impoverish our lives.

Wherever there is exaggerated nationalism,

wherever there is imaginary racial or gender superiority,

wherever there is adamant religious identity as "God’s chosen ones,"

there is an artificial sense of specialness.

Such "specialness" may appeal

to an unthinking, herd-like mentality,

or to a bloated but fragile sense of egotism.

But ironically, these serve only to degrade a person’s true specialness.

But as groups "manufacture" specialness,

as sects create separation from humanity

with special books and rules and creeds,

as individuals fantasize they are better than other people,

there occurs a corresponding reduction

in one’s greater sense of humanity.

And where there is reduction,

there is loss.

There is the loss of freedom to live comfortably with all peoples.

There is the loss of security that universal friendship can provide.

To derive Identity from a better-than-others ego,

or from the "specialness" of religion or gender or nation or race,

is to DEPRIVE one’s self of an identity based on

the greater reality of being Human.

FIRST AND FOREMOST...

we are each born a Human Being.

Each one of us at the moment of birth,

even if impaired,

is inherently blessed with human talents and abilities and gifts,

which can fulfill the self and serve the society.

But when racial or gender limitations are assigned at birth,

one’s higher reality of human-ness becomes reduced.

When a nationalistic or religious identity is imposed upon a child,

the honor of being Human,

the joy of being Unique,

and the safety of being inherently Connected to All Humanity

are all sacrificed to a lesser idea.

There is a good and loving document which was addressed to all the world,

the Declaration of Independence.

It refers to humanity’s universal Source as

"the Laws of Nature" and "Nature’s God."

We must ask:

what single religion or gender or race or nation

can exclusively claim Nature’s God?

Isn’t Nature common to All?

It seems to be self-evident that the ever-mysterious

and intelligent essence behind all of Nature

is indeed the Source of each one of us.

But there are scriptures which teach of lesser gods,

sometimes a deity with a peculiar personality to whom "the chosen ones"

must be obedient.

Such concepts, though, are opposite the Declaration of Independence.

Such ideas are declarations of subservience.

And while any of us may choose to live in slavish subservience,

even Jesus the Christ preached absolute equality.

"More than servants, you are my friends."

"All that I do, you shall do also."

"Know you not you are gods?"

He praised the sister who left the kitchen-work

and joined the men as an equal.

He socialized with tax collectors and prostitutes –

who were the "Feds" and "homos" and "whores" of his day.

He thoroughly denounced strict religious followers

as "hypocrites and vipers."

In this same spirit,

the body of law which emerged from the Declaration of Independence

is law that honors all human liberty.

The U.S. Constitution lovingly states,

"No religious test shall ever be required."

Nowhere in the Constitution is there even one mention of God.

In this wisdom,

no particular religion can claim more authority than another.

Every religion is optional.

And all legal authority in the United States

comes not from the God of any religion, but exclusively from:

"We the People."

American law no doubt is so designed

because our natural state

– Human from Nature –

is what all the world has in common.

In understanding that we are Human from Nature,

we know we need not conform.

We are joyfully different,

but ultimately complementary.

We are individually free,

yet comfortably interdependent.

We are ecstatically unique,

but socially supportive.

Except for criminal aggressors,

isn’t the concept of individual freedom and mutual support

FOR EVERY HUMAN BEING

something far superior to the judgment and prejudice and pain we’ve suffered

from the interpretations of

religion and gender and race?

Isn’t it time for us to wake up

– perhaps grow up –

to a state of Transcendence –

which honors all and disrespects none?

Or shall we struggle on with invented creeds and "special" identities,

which – in thought and in deed –

reduce us to egotistical tyrants or pitiful slaves,

and make us forever less than Human.

People of Earth,

in order to enjoy friendship, find peace, and create happiness,

let us now call upon each other to awaken to a Greater Reality.

Let us express the dignity and freedom of Our Mutual Humanity,

wherein our differences are not "wrong" or "inferior."

Let us begin to comprehend our mutual Laws-of-Nature God,

and reject traditional tales of tyranny and favoritism.

Let us leave behind the prejudices of race and religion and gender and nation,

and reach up to our essential goodness and connectedness.

Let us heed the call to

TRANSCENDENCE!

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