Excite, Invite, Inspire Me

It seems like for 10 years I've been living the life of a venomous creature inside a sealed transparent container.

People walk by me, see me, talk about me like I'm not there.

People tap on the glass of where I am confined for 8 hours a day to get my attention and hope I'll do something they think is interesting.

People are afraid to clean my tank, you know, take me out for awhile, because I am so dangerous.  So instead they feed me contrived forms of nutrition (not anything I might eat if I could choose myself) through a little hole, when it is convenient for them (not when I might be hungry). They know it is only a matter of time before I expire - that's OK.  I'm only there for their entertainment - a commodity to satisfy their needs.  When I'm gone they'll just buy a new one.

Once, people thought it might be interesting to put me with other venomous creatures just to "see what would happen".  I was scared at first, but I learned to not only appreciate the company, I THRIVED.  Sadly, a family of thriving dangerous creatures was a threat to the people, so they did everything in their power to separate us. And they won. I was alone.  Until last week when...

I BROKE FREE.  How? EXCITEMENT came into my life! Another creature like me had the courage to not accept what others had labeled them and demanded to determine their own name and therefore drive their own destiny.  They took the name Badass Teacher and INVITED all of us - the dangerous - to share in the freedom that is derived from self determination.  Now that I have this freedom I am INSPIRED to cherish it and to share it, to understand it and protect it.

When I came into this world I had expectations.  I expected to be sheltered, nourished, comforted, unconditionally. I expected to be encouraged and supported to think and create and dance and sing and to succeed and fail and succeed and fail and succeed.  I expected that the people who came before me were afforded these things so they would provide me with them, unconditionally. I expected family. I expected community. Imagine my surprise to learn that my caregivers were often denied these things and so either couldn't give them to me or wouldn't. Imagine my horror to learn and to come to understand by experience that humanity in our schools was not what was valued and institutionalized.  

Imagine the paralysis caused by fear and exercised through compliance to change the way you view your self.  Imagine who benefits from this conditioning.  Now imagine resisting the effort to deny you freedom for no other reason than to satiate their indulgences.

Now get up. Stand up. Rise. Fulfill your destiny and Be.

In solidarity Badasses.

Peace.