Creativity and Liberty
OBJECTIVES
My life seems to have two objectives.
To inspire people towards Creativity and Liberty.
The kingly virtues
Because they're so important I feel that the ideas behind them get obscured too often.
Dethrone the kingly virtues like these by removing the meaning behind the symbols. And soon we're marching in the streets and waving flags just because we've always done it.
CREATIVITY
Creativity = phenomenon whereby a person creates something new (a product, a solution, a work of art etc.) that has some kind of value.
Creative solutions are what I admire most. But I think that all 3 aspects of creativity interelate and empower the mind and the person.
I think it is a capacity we can grow and I think that this capability that should be stressed more than ever.
Creativity can lead to a more capable life... capable of achievining and attaining more liberty.
LIBERTY
I think Liberty is one of the greatest of gifts that God has given us. It is known by many names. Freedom, Free Choice and Free Will to name a couple.
Often there are so many cliches attached to the concept and we are in danger of really grasping the importance in our hearts how necisary it is.
I believe that the first conflict among men was fought over the theme of Liberty and I believe we still must fight for it and I believe that in the future this will be the crux of the fight as well.
This is still God's world. The forces of evil, working through some mortals, have made a mess of a good part of it. But it is still God's world. In due time, when each of us has had a chance to prove ourselves--including whether or not we are going to stand up for freedom--God will interject himself, and the final and eternal victory shall be for free agency. And then shall those complacent people on the sidelines, and those who took the wrong but temporarily popular course, lament their decisions. To the patriots I say this: Take that long eternal look. Stand up for freedom, no matter what the cost. Stand up and be counted. It can help to save your soul--and maybe your country.
and
“Of course, the war in heaven over free agency is now being waged here on earth, and there are those today who are saying ‘Look, don't get involved in the fight for freedom. Just live the gospel.’ That counsel is dangerous, self-contradictory, unsound…Now, part of the reason we may not have sufficient priesthood bearers to save the Constitution let alone to shake the powers of hell, is because unlike Moroni, I fear, our souls do not joy in keeping our country free, and we are not firm in the faith of Christ nor have we sworn with an oath to defend our rights and the liberty of our country. Moroni raised a title of liberty and wrote upon it these words: ‘In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.’ Why didn't he write upon it: ‘Just live your religion; there's no need to concern yourselves about your freedom, your peace, your wives, or your children’? The reason he didn't do this was because all these things were a part of his religion, as they are of our religion today. Should we counsel people, ‘Just live your religion. There's no need to get involved in the fight for freedom’? No, we should not, because our stand for freedom is a most basic part of our religion; this stand helped get us to this earth, and our reaction to freedom in this life will have eternal consequences. Man has many duties, but he has no excuse that can compensate for his loss of liberty.”
- Ezra Taft Benson
I choose to lead a life centered on human liberty. Next to the atonement of Christ and his eternal plan for our salvation it is this agency, this free will, this liberty that I am most thankful for.
PRINCIPLES
I believe that true eternal principles are what are most powerful and most worthy of our time and effort.
The root principles that I try to see and implement in everything I do: Liberty, Love, Eternal Progression, Stewardship
Principles above politics, principles above party, principles above propaganda.
Choose good eternal principles in all situations ... "Do what is right, let the consequence follow"
