What does America stand for?
What is an “American” anyway?
Your culture´s evolution is guided by the meaning you give to the symbols you use and the values you hold dear. They reflect the character of the community.

The way we see ourselves, and the meaning we give to our shared and personal symbols shape how we engage with the world.
They define how we change our world for better or worse.
If we expect to make any changes in our personal life, or in our communities, we need to start changing the meaning we give to the symbols around us. From what we understand by the word “community” to what we think about when we think “success”, “progress”, “government… the words we use put ideas in our head about what is possible or not, what is desirable or not, and what we should aspire to or not.
Today, most of us are only resisting. We resist and see with disgust the ugliness of our most politicians and government, destructive corporations and stale institutions.
We need to go from resisting to opposing. To building the new.
For that, we need new symbols and metaphors. New meanings.
I. Who gives symbols their meaning?
Our entire personal experience is made up of symbols and how our mind interprets them. Language is symbols, things and objects are symbols, actions carry symbolic meaning.
We communicate by agreeing on the meaning of a symbol.
We all share a common, more or less similar understanding of what things mean.
It´s all in our heads, collectively.
Now, symbols have the power to inspire and bring out of us certain ideas and actions.
And then there are symbols that mean something more to us in our private worlds. We have given them a new purpose. Sometimes, a more powerful one. A specific song, lyrics, images, events. Emotional charge.
There is great freedom in taking something and making it your own. It is exercising your creative license and giving something new meaning. Almost like charging something with your energy.
And, if they say the meaning of life is to give life meaning, then we´re doing something right if we give something within our life new meaning.
We get to do this at any moment.
And it can be extremely powerful in guiding our actions and reminding us of who we aspire to embody.
Shift your energy towards something by shifting the way you see it. By shifting your attention and perspective it becomes something new.
It´s a bit like how the first of the Four Agreements talks about being impeccable with your word. Remember that the words you use (and the meaning you ascribe to them) create worlds.
II. Reframing the Hammer
For many years I have worn my Thor´s Hammer pendant, Mjolnir. The hammer of the mightiest of all the gods, protector of the realm of Asgard. A great engine of destruction. It´s badass. It´s heavy. It´s silver. And it used to get people asking “is that an anchor”? And “what does it mean”?

Well, besides being a token of Norse mythology, which I love, it carried a pretty standard meaning: it used to be “for protection”, and it weighed heavy on my chest. A big strong weapon to fend off evil.
Right.
Back before my moment of clarity in 2011, it was an anchor. It used to represent to me, subconsciously, the weight of all my regrettable decisions. My “Karmic past”. It was also “for protection”. But, “protection” from whom?
Turns out, when you feel you need protecting, it can be because you don´t trust yourself, or your capacity to keep ourselves safe through your own means. It also means you feel the outside “is out to get you”. Not the most healthy way to relate to others, always on the defensive.
I took off the hammer in june 2011, and I didn´t wear it again for almost a year. It felt wrong. It felt heavy. Tainted, even. I let it go. I was ready to trust myself, to love me and to change my perspective of the world.
I felt lighter and better.
Then one day I felt ready to wear it again.
Somehow, its meaning had transmuted in my mind. Now the hammer meant not “burden of guilt”, “protection from the outside”.
Mjolnir now meant “the will to change”.
I saw a simple shift in perspective: a hammer is not just a weapon. It is also a tool.
It can tear down the old and rotten planks and bricks of stale walls, and build the structures of a new and better life.
I wear it every day since.
It´s the symbol of hope that we can yet do better, starting with myself, and that it´s all about your will to take action.
III. Reframing a Nation

In the USA as in Mexico, we are mostly merely resisting the tide of crony capitalism, abusive, extractive institutions and illegitimate leadership.
We are very busy not building a staunch opposition.
I believe the USA, like Mexico, is suffering from an identity crisis.
The spirit of its founding fathers stood for something very different than what today´s leadership represents.
Today, USA seems to stand for an empire in decadence and collapse. Meanwhile, Mexico is looking a lot like Venezuela these days.
We see this and our hope falters and we might not stand “being American” or “Mexican”. We might not like what it seems to represent.
But our countries and our cultures are not their leadership.
In fact, in stark contrast to its leadership, in my recent visits to cities in the USA from Texas to Washington, I found kindness and hope and warmth in people from all walks of life, from fry cooks to members of government and business leaders. Meanwhile, in my country, Mexicans at their best can be some of the most inspiring people, loving and empathic and collaborative.
So it´s time we made our culture our own and gave it new meaning. Not even going back to the original sentiments of the nation and the founding fathers, but a new, bolder vision that is right for the challenges ahead, born out of the strengths and noblest core values we can aspire to.
That we may be moved to embody the people we might become.
Lets shed the old skin of a teenage civilization and step into what we are called to be. Reframe what it means to be part of your culture. Make “being American”, “being Mexican” something to aspire to be worthy of.
Love,
Luis
July 4th. 2017
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P.S.
IV. Not just any questions will do
We need to mobilize and oppose the crumbling, festering old system with its counterpoint: we must imagine something better and commit to building it together.
To get where we want to go we will need the right kind of questions. Questions to fire up our creativity and guide it to dreaming and building a new way to be.
Let´s start with two, and leave your answers in the comments!
1. Tell me about a time when you felt inspired by America (or insert your country here). About when you felt it was at its best.
2. Tell me about a time when you saw your community at its most prosperous. What was going on? How did it happen?
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