A Pledge to Say the Pledge

 

The US is immersed in some interesting times at the moment... like other countries aren't? I hear they imprisoned a thirteen year old in Britain for being in a riot. It's like January 6 except for middle schoolers.

As I mentioned in my most recent essay, despite my own non-pacifist worldview, going full Unabomber makes no sense at this point. If we all decide to act like Hezbollah after a cocaine bender and strap bombs on our chest, it will only prove to the other side we were not worth the powder to blow us to heaven hell.

There is very little we can do, however, I believe little things matter. I believe cleaning my own toilet keeps me humble -- that is why I do it every night no matter how exhausted I am. Cleaning my toilet is my way of saying "thank you" to a piece of porcelain that makes my life infinitely better and more comfortable. I thank my car, my cats, my husband, and my mom. I thank my computers, my iPhone, my weedwhacker, and my stove. I thank trees and lakes. It is the thankful life. I believe gratitude is powerful magic.

Long ago, when it was 1981 and Ronald Reagan was just starting out as President, we elementary school kids had to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag every school day morning. The Pledge is a short prayer originally composed by Captain George Thatcher Balch, a Union Army officer in the Civil War. Balch's poem was adapted by Francis Bellamy a year later for the 1892 World Columbian Exposition. Not long after, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited by schoolchildren all across America.

In order to say the Pledge of Allegiance, you stand near the American flag (or an image of the American flag) with your right hand over your heart and say:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag
Of the United States of America
And to the Republic for which it stands
One nation, under God, indivisible
With liberty and justice for all

And now the ask: I would like you to join me (in spirit) in saying the Pledge of Allegiance every morning starting Wednesday, September 11, 2024 for an entire year, so that means until Thursday, September 11, 2025. There is no "point" or agenda to saying the Pledge except to strengthen the better parts of the US's astral pyramid. You can say the Pledge if you're Republican, Democrat, or neither. You can say it if you're not American -- this isn't a pledge of your eternal soul after all; it's a statement of support for the unity of a nation under God with liberty and justice for all.

May my nation and yours heal from within.