Choose Freedom Within

Recently I was filling my car at a gas station after work. The city was experiencing an unusually high rate of thefts of fuel. Gas and runs. In order to combat this problem some stations with rear pumps required the driver to prepay with credit or debit card on that pump. This was due to the lack of visibility of the license plate. I finished filling up and went inside to pay (I was on a front pump).

A jeep had just pulled up to the pump behind me. While standing at the counter I overheard the cashier on the intercom speaking with the driver of the jeep. She was informing him of the prepayment requirement for that particular pump. He replied but the intercom was full of static and he went unheard. I finished paying and walked out the door over to my car. I could hear the man at the pump raising his voice, shouting into the intercom. He was flailing his arms in the air and saying, "I will no longer help build Arco service stations! Why do we need to use a credit card for everything!!!! When will you stop buying the line?"

At first glance he appears to be saying that we are sheep, gullible to even consider that we can't live without credit cards. By our participation in the process we are allowing ourselves to be controlled by corporations. We are basically buying the company "line".

I agreed with what he said, however, I questioned his intent. What struck me about his display was that he took the responsibility of our awareness upon himself. How often have we tried to convert others to our way of thinking, not as a way for them to understand us, but to validate what we cling to? He had obviously chosen to live by his convictions as he left to find another station, but by his display is he implying that we are not aware of what we do? Is he implying that his choice should be ours? It seems true that most of the world is living unaware of the larger dynamics at play in big business, politics, and religion. Are we being controlled? Are we responsible for the awareness of others?

We are not here to convince others of what we are aware of. Their awareness is their own journey. We can share our awareness with others allowing them to make up their own minds. It is when we have expectations of how they will respond to our revelations that we lose perspective of our own awareness, our own path. If someone asks me about something in particular, I am truthful in answering what I am aware of, however, I do not find it necessary to go on a crusade. As much as I think I know what's really going on with something, I have to remind myself that there is always a bigger picture than what I am capable of seeing.

Unfortunately, as much as we are decision makers, we are judges, appointed by society and by ourselves. We take it on ourselves to judge another as to whether they "get it" or not. We judge others as needing our advice or our moral standards. We judge and often condemn the very thing that drives us forward on our paths: Freewill of choice.

The young man at the pump seemed to be proclaiming that he is no longer a victim, or is he? He seems not to be content with his own revelation, his own triumph over victimhood. He gives the impression that unless we are all united in his proclamation that he must continue to struggle. That as long as WE continue to ignore what he knows HE will continue to be victimized. Our decision to support what he is against is taken personally by him. His judgment of the credit card companies has shifted to the rest of the public. He is being wronged and we are not there to help him make it right.

He started off his first statement with "I", which is where we all start in initiating any form of change. It is when we struggle to convince others that we travel down the road of controlling others. His "I" became "YOU". His focus shifted from "I will choose what is best for me" to "I will choose what is best for all".

He sees the fight against control of our financial power as one that can only be won with the support of many. He fears the large company and seeks to depose the credit card kings, but believes that his choices alone are ineffective. At some point in his life he came to believe the "necessity" of credit as false. We can only speculate why. We can never know with certainty what motivates him. After having witnessed his display, I have to consider that his anger stems from the possibility that he for some reason cannot obtain a credit card for which we depend on so much. Choosing not to react in the way he expects, we are, in his eyes, forcing him to remain a victim.

In deciding not to participate in this aspect of commerce he has taken a step to free himself of his own victimhood. Unfortunately he has traded one oppressor for another, the public. He is no longer a victim of the corporations but is now a victim of the ignorant masses. If we are not for him, we are against him. Perhaps he felt that because he is only one man, the way to win the war was to recruit more troops. Unfortunately his method includes not education of the masses, but conscription into his army. In his view our awareness does not meet his awareness and if we continue making a choice, not conducive to his own as to who we support or what we believe, we remain victims as does he. By being unaware of his own power he has not recognized that the only battle that can be won has been.

There appears to be a contradiction. He is saying, "I have chosen not to be a victim", but feels the desired results of that choice will not manifest unless the public chooses the same and he will remain one until the public opens it's eyes. He feels that until the oppressors are stopped and held accountable that victims we will remain to be.

The choice to rise above victimhood does not require the majority to rise as well. It does not stop corporations, in this case, to cease being a victimizer. Our choice is internal and personal. There may always be oppressors in our society, looking out for our highest good. It is only within ourselves that our power is most effective.

He is free to not shop at any particular gas station. He is free to not own or apply for a credit card. He is free to disregard the "line" that says it's necessary. In making these choices he is applying control over his own life and beliefs. He has released himself from being a victim. In arguing for our choices and having expectations of the result of those choices he has imprisoned himself once again.

Every choice is motivated by an intention. It is the quality of that intention that determines the quality of the outcome.

If our intent is borne of anger, resentment, jealousy, or fear, we will imprison ourselves in the world of expectations and external fulfillment, which at some point in time leads to disappointment, grief, and victimhood.

Know that the choice you make is as valuable to you as the opposite choice is to another. Allow others to make their choices knowing that those choices may not be appropriate for yourself.

Live with your choices, accept them as yours and yours alone and allow others to do the same.

If you do not see yourself as a victim and act accordingly, then you are truly free to determine your own path, not being dependent on external circumstances or expected outcomes. Everyone has their own perceptions.

Whose will you choose to follow?

Being a victim is not the result of being oppressed. It is not the result of the actions of another. Events which occur by means we cannot imagine, or by the words or actions of another are nothing more than events. We are not victims until we choose to see ourselves that way.