Batteries and Politician's Agenda

My mom continues to flip through the channels of the television from NCIS to some argumentative newscasters on CNN. They're saying "George Bush didn't do this" and "(some other politician I don't know) did this! How could he do that to the American people!?"

I don't like watching or getting involved in any kind of politics. It's not because I don't like the conflict it's just that I don't want to get wrapped up in the drama happening daily in our political arenas. And it's not that I don't care about the people in America, I just hate it when people are trying to get me to buy into their ideas when they themselves don't really care about them but are trying to gain something else from it. I mean, it's not fun getting your emotions all riled up and then find out that person who convinced you in the first place doesn't care.

Once in fourth grade our teacher was telling us how bad it is for the environment to throw away your batteries. We should take them to a place that recycles them. So as a little 10 year old I'm like "Yeah! Every battery I use I'm going to save and take them to one of those places and save the environment!" Within the next couple of days I walk by our classroom trash can and I see 'em! Two batteries sitting at the bottom of the empty trash can! 'How dare they endanger the environment! Ah! My teacher she will share my shock and disgust!' So I pick them out of the trash can and show them to my teacher. She tells me she threw them in there when she changed the batteries in the clock on the wall. So I walk back to my desk bewildered why my teacher would advocate something she wouldn't even do in her own classroom with all the impressional children observing her actions day in and day out.

I know that's not what pushed me over the mistrust-of-authority edge but it is an impressional experience encouraging the voice in me that screams "Danger! Danger, Will Robinson. Danger!" anytime someone is trying to convince me I should believe in something or agree with their point of view, especially authority figures.

So now I hope you can understand why I see politicians' (or anyone pursuading others to follow something) agenda easliy tossed aside like those batteries in my fourth grade trash can.

Bonsai??

I got the idea for using bonsai trees from the movie "Ninja Assassin." In the movie the main character is being trained to become a ninja. They are taught under harsh conditions and punished severely. The students cut somewhere on their body every time they fail at something. One scene the students are tending to bonsai trees and every tree has a wiring around it, controlling how the tree will grow. The wires on the bonsai trees represents the way the ninja clan's control over the students and their strong hand forming them to be killing machines. One female student cuts the wires on a bonsai tree foreshadowing her cutting the wires restricting her own freedom to grow and live as she chooses.

In the same way I can parallel this to my own life. I allow the wires of expectation and judgement to come around my life and mold me into a person I believe they want me to be. I do things or say things because I believe people would want me to say it and I want them to like me. I need their approval for the things I do and say. I allow their words and their opinions about myself and the world around me pull and tug at my branches causing me to live a life that is not mine, a life that is unnatural. When I succumb to their suppression I become less authentic, I become less of the person I want to be.