{"id":168,"date":"2011-07-02T10:56:18","date_gmt":"2011-07-02T14:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/insweetcompany\/?p=168"},"modified":"2011-07-02T10:56:18","modified_gmt":"2011-07-02T14:56:18","slug":"july-4-th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/07\/july-4-th.html","title":{"rendered":"July 4 th"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI believe there is an evolutionary movement towards love in the universe, a self-organizing process around love that\u2019s moving us toward what we call higher levels of consciousness.\u201d<\/em> — Riane Eisler, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE<\/p>\n

Many years ago, my soon-to-be husband took me to Philadelphia to meet his family and childhood friends. I\u2019d never been to Philadelphia before, but as every 10 th grade civics student knows, the city is home to its share of famous men and events that must memorized in order to pass a final exam. Though I am not, by nature, a political person, I am patriotic. And so it was that I looked forward to my visit, to seeing the historic places I\u2019d committed to memory as a young girl.<\/p>\n

We went first to Independence Hall, the site of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, home of the Second Continental Congress. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams had paced the floors I now walked in a decided effort to \u201cform a more perfect Union.\u201d\u00a0 I wandered from room to room, surprisingly awestruck, in the almost tangible presence of their persistence, their intelligence, their loyalty. Why hadn\u2019t my civics teacher told me they were like this<\/em>? I had not expected to feel I was on holy ground.<\/p>\n

The other thing that took me by surprise was the Liberty Bell, its dark earthy color, its\u00a0 heft, its infamous crack exposed like a wound, a national wound, that had yet to heal. Though it was cordoned off by a thick velvet rope, though a sign asked visitors not to touch the bell, I covertly ran my fingers along its surface and the rugged interior of the fissure. I can still feel its rough hewn edges, the dry, protective crust growing atop the wound. I remember feeling sad.<\/p>\n

I think about that visit now in these days of divisiveness and disharmony — an era of reinvention not unlike the days those great men debated the look and feel of my country. Though our enemies and our wounds be different,\u00a0 our struggle continues exactly because above all else, at our core, \u201cwe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s taking us longer than we expected to get it right. As it is in the lives of every American, so it is in the life of our nation. But we continue on until we do get it right. Until the Greater Good, a \u201cperfect union\u201d prevails. It\u2019s the American way.<\/p>\n

Your thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI believe there is an evolutionary movement towards love in the universe, a self-organizing process around love that\u2019s moving us toward what we call higher levels of consciousness.\u201d — Riane Eisler, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE Many years ago, my soon-to-be husband took me to Philadelphia to meet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[62,61,64,63],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-greater-good","tag-declaration-of-indepdence","tag-july-4th","tag-the-american-way","tag-the-greater-good-2"],"yoast_head":"\nJuly 4 th - In Sweet Company<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/07\/july-4-th.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"July 4 th - 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She speaks and writes about things women care about: how to make our lives and our work be about what we value most; how to navigate challenge and change; how to live with integrity and grace, to look at error in ourselves and others in a forgiving way and view life as an invitation to transform ourselves into instruments for the Greater Good. \"I laughed, I cried, I was silent, I cheered. Most of all, I loved.\" Spoken by a woman at In Sweet Company Retreat, these words express what women experience when Margaret engages them in dynamic, soul-searching conversations about their lives. Margaret holds degrees in art therapy, psychosynthesis, and leadership and human behavior. Her work takes her to universities, to conferences and retreat settings, to living rooms and board rooms -- wherever women gather. Her articles, essays, and stories are featured in numerous magazines; her women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spirituality retreats are held throughout the U.S. Margaret\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last book, In \"Sweet Company: Conversations With Extraordinary Women About Living a Spiritual Life\" (Jossey Bass), is a collection of intimate conversations she had with 14 famous women of various ages, faiths, and backgrounds about how their spirituality nourishes them and serves as a steady compass for their decision-making. Olympia Dukakis, Riane Eisler, Zainab Salbi, Margaret Wheatley, Sri Daya Mata, Lauren Artress, and other women artists, activists, religious leaders, and visionary thinkers shared their lives with her. 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