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DAVID BENTLEY'S WEEKLY COLUMN |
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INDEPENDENCE
Independence Day is here, and few people enjoy celebrating their independence more than a bunch of folks living on a small, rural, and fairly remote island. We promote our quaint and quirky parades. We hold onto territorial traditions and familiar festivities. We even wake up early on July 4th to see if the elusive 6 a.m. explosion from the harbor occurs once again. Our search for independence begins at birth, and, for some of us, continues to the grave. Babies crawl and toddlers climb. Children attend school and have sleepovers with friends. Youth attend summer camp and eventually move out of their parents' home. It's a natural part of growing up to become less dependent on others and do things in our own way. History books are full of examples of people exerting their independence politically, economically, socially, spiritually, and every other way. Sometimes it works well and brings about needed or desired change. Other times it leads to stubbornness that keeps things exactly as they were. As a writer, I often use a group of words called an "independent clause." That group contains a subject and a verb, and sometimes an object and modifiers. It is capable of standing alone as a complete sentence, but does not have to do that. It can be combined with other words or groups of words to create more complex and interesting sentences. In some situations the simple sentence is the right choice of words. Other times more words are needed. Like any other human characteristic, independence is neither good nor bad by itself. It just gives us potential that we did not previously have, and brings with it a new set of responsibilities. How we use that potential is totally up to us. Some situations require independent people working alone. Other situations require the cooperation of many independent people. May we each have the wisdom to know how best to use our own independence.
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SAN JUAN ISLANDER © 2008 |
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