kids sleep in the other room. Each part gives what they can for the benefit of the whole. This is a very common practice in Arizona and other states where immigration from Mexico and other Latin American countries is high. In dozens of countries around the world, the family unit is highly esteemed, and there is no stigma attached to having Uncle Fred living near the sink.
If not family reliant, we could be town or city reliant, putting our faith in the belief that city officials will ultimately bail us out of our misery when a crisis appears. How about being state reliant? Hopefully the governor and his or her underlings in the state's bureaucracy will feel just as strongly about your family (and everyone else's) as you do to fend off the demons of civil distress. We could even ponder for a moment about the virtues of becoming federal government reliant. We could hope and trust that the government, in all its wisdom and power, would see fit to keep us safe and sound, protected from all harm.
If you grew up with one of the good history books in school, instead of the sanitized versions, you would have read how, many decades ago, the U.S. government had a little problem with all those damn Indians hanging around. They would get in the way of mining, mess with settlers, chuck arrows at the military, and generally be a pain in the butt toward our goal of "manifest destiny" for the white man. They were hard to find, too, as they just ran off into the hills or the prairies, seemingly completely self-reliant upon the landscape in which they lived.
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PARASITES AND TRUE PARASITES: A
METAPHORICAL
LOVE STORY
Para site (par' ? sit') n . 1. one who lives at others' expense without making any useful return
In the wild world of nature, the Earth is filled with various types of parasites. Each living kingdom has its share, from plants, to fish, to insects, animals, and humans. The very nature of a parasite's lifestyle revolves around the concept of it being dependent on external circumstances to live. Some parasites are more adaptive than others and when their host dies, they drop off, migrate, search, or simply wait until another host appears. Although they are parasitic, they retain some semblance of the will to live and expend a certain amount of energy to feed once again. These organisms are called parasites . Other parasites, when their host dies, they die too. These organisms are called true parasites for they can't survive without their host.
In our twenty-first-century world, most modern human beings fall under one of these two categories. Our "host" might be government welfare, an uninspiring yet financially rich lover or spouse, the "security" of the big corporate job, controlling parents or family members, the gifted credit card (for emergencies only, of course), or a number of other modern-day methods of being "kept," guaranteed to slowly rob you of your personal power, motivation, character, and ultimate self-worth.
Be easy on yourself. We can't help but be parasitic to a certain extent. However, for survival purposes, the old adage "don't put all of your eggs into one basket" still rings true. Strive to become more conscious about who your hosts are and gently work for greater freedom. This sidebar is not meant to have you secretly scheming or brooding about your current situation, socially, financially, or otherwise. It's simply meant as a reminder to be conscious as to who or what seems (and I do mean seems) to govern your world.
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A bunch of folks in Washington got together and decided that the best way to get rid of these Indians was to take from them their way of life. Just eliminate the buffalo, and whatever else they needed to live free, and pretty soon those savages would be crawling on their hands and knees for help! The idea worked like a charm, and the blankets contaminated with smallpox didn't hurt the cause either.
Overall, once proud and independent Native American tribes across the