When folks get into discussions about patriotism I'll find a way to quietly say, "I am a matriot." Most people haven't heard of that and want an explanation. I tell them this:
Patriots are stewards and guardians of the "small-hold" - personal property, clan, town, state, nation - property.
Matriots are stewards and guardians of the "great-hold" - the entire planet and all beings.
There is no gender requirement for either patriotism or matriotism. Both are good, when in balance.
At present we've got an overabundance of patriotism and an epidemic of "rogue male" behavior in males and females. More matriots of both genders can help the patriots mature, and this can assist humanity in releasing anti-planetary behaviors such as bombings and agricultural and industrial earth/air/water poisoning associated with unbridled consumerism ("Shopping is patriotic.")
Feel free to join the new Gather group MATRIOT! and contribute articles to discussions about expanding human/planetary stewardship consciousness. Topics like devic gardening, abundance-manifestation, conscious community, co-housing, co-creative business, city meditators, and more may stimulate the visionary and the futurist in you. Have at it!
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Comments: 44
(hey, what the unholy-heck, Matriot isn't in my Firefox spell check !!!)
Patriot - small hold - protector/provider - Patriarch/Papa.
Matriot - great hold - nurturer - Matriarch/Mama.
The fine point is that a person of any age can be considered a patriot or matriot. We generally consider patriarchs and matriarchs to be something dignified, like a husband, a wife - and more than that, the important head of a whole family system. My former mother-in-law, age 94, and a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, is a matriarch.
Thanks, Selene - I hope it proves useful to a lot of people.
I am definately a patriot but not a Matriot,. I have no use for tree huggers and environmentalists
You old sweetie - I know you have a mother and grandmother. And I know you've been receiving all kinds of wonderful food, clothing and shelter from Mother Earth all your life.
Gosh! I'm smiling here, thinking of all the good times you must have had seeing the beauty of mountains, streams, oceans......
Hmmmm.
I'm an old mountain hugger, myself. And I hug horses, too. (c:*
Keep posting! But could you do us the favor of expanding a bit on your views? I think in your heart you're one of us -- otherwise, why would you bother to read Carolion's postings? -- but the responses you're writing aren't sufficently argued. For example: what's wrong with tree huggers and enviromentalists? I happen to like these people. I happen to be one of them. It's ok if you think I'm an idiot, but just calling me a doo-doo head doesn't work. You need to tell us why this way of looking at the world is wrong. Then I will think about what you say, and talk to you, and maybe both our views will evolve towards something closer to the truth.
Carolion, I think I'm a natural born Matriot.
Let's help 'tip the balance' in favor of Mother Earth.
One who loves, supports, and defends one's country
A person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion.
A person who regards himself or herself as a defender, esp. of individual rights, against presumed interference by the federal government.
Just for clarification of what the word actually means.
So how does a matriot hold stewardship over the earth say as a patriot holds stewardship over their country?
It seems a bit inward focused to me.
Can't say that I've hugged a lot of trees, but I've planted hundreds. The big pines I planted 25 years ago, bring shade, cut out traffic noise and offer lovely greenery in winter and summer.
If someone truly loves, suports and defends one's country, wouldn't one try to enhance the environment?
I'm sure we fall into various categories of helping skills, according to our gifts. Sort of like chapters in a handbook, I bet.
"The Complete Matriot" ------- to me, a complete matriot would be a GROUP acting as one heartmind.
It seems a bit inward focused to me. //
Dan - I think you may agree that we need both inward and outward focus in order to be truly well-balanced.
That said, I'll also point out that definitions shift over time. I'm putting my energy into upgrading the definition of patriotism as we get going on deepening the understanding of what an acceptance of matriotism can mean.
In terms of stewardship: please note that I use the word GUARDIAN for patriotic energy, and STEWARD for matriotic energy.
Again, in a balanced system we need both forms of awareness/service, do we not? For instance, good parents must both guard the well-being of their children (including guardianship of home - be it shack or castle or hut in the woods), while at the same time they must steward the family system and home in order to keep all in healthy balance.
I postulate that patriotism - which, by nature, only guards the interests of a single nation - is not enough. I believe that we have had huge numbers of the energetically disenfranchised, those who would (and now can) joyously identify with matriotism, if only we had such a category. Now we do.
Thought categories are immensely important to humans, since we manifest our material world by means of picturing-out "thoughtforms." When someone who is a natural matriot (sees forests and seas and soil in whole-earth living system terms rather than single-nation economic resource terms) feels excluded and left out of the "in-group" (up 'til now, that would be the patriots), then that is a loss of energy. Energy that could fund more earth healing, and more human forgiveness as well.
That's where I'm headed with these definitions. Please keep asking your excellent questions!
Blessings and best wishes - S.
Yes. That's where I'm hoping matriotism can help bring things into better balance. Right now we have lots of "red-blooded Americans" who "hate tree huggers" and who consider themselves patriots. I'm thinking - well - patriotism can use a little stimulation in order to begin its maturation process. The blooming of matriotism could very well provide that stimulation - could be the catalyst - for an amazing process.
What a coupling that would be: complementary opposites - matriotism and patriotism - like husband and wife, working as a team in their different-but-equal ways.
Very cool, my friend. You have me too.
So off I go to join your new group. Thanks, Carolion.
Hey!
The other shoe--------it has dropped. (c:*
Tom C., welcome - so glad to meet you.
I often tought that was a time when we choose to be more materialistic versus developing in to a higher consciousness being. Maybe now is the time, maybe I was looking in to the future not the past.
Did you ever notice that those who worship money can't ever seem to truly mature?
I guess that point of choice - Mammon or God/Good - might be right around the age when we are supposed to become spiritually responsible for our own lives - Age 14.
If we make it past that point and onto the path of Love, then we can mature into a global teamwork-for-highest-good point of view.
If we get stuck, though, choose mammon, then we're also stuck in the "It's all about ME" stage.
Ah-----but Love is contagious, being as really, it's all there is and all we need.......So I'm betting that with this flowering of opening hearts, more and more of those stuck in the mammon ME consciousness may become able to shed it and wake up in Love.
U wishing you laughter
Elizabeth, I can just see this delightful poker game where the dialogue between Matriots and Patriots runs something like this: "We SEE you and RAISE you One."
So - actualizing the matriotic consciousness to complement the patriotic, in general outer awareness first, ensures that the complements will be freed-up inside small groups and individuals as well.
You've described "patriot" well. Very well.
I love the title and meaning behind this Group.
Blessings ~
Rene
Rene, YES!
And I'm on my way over to change.gov now to put this concept into the mix.
Lol! That flag! Me, a Boomer - I've tried using the flag as a shawl, as a cape......But it turns out I'd just really love to have a nun's robe made of it, and just be a walking peace prayer. I haven't gotten around to sewing it yet - but one of these days............
And perhaps the MATRIOT version might have Green Brown & Yellow instead of RedWhiteBlue.....Maybe instead of stripes there would be furrows in a field; and instead of stars in a blue background, perhaps there might be star-shaped wildflowers in a patch of prairie. Who knows? Back to the drawing board...