George Washington – Patriot or Traitor?

Per virginiahistory.org, “In 1776, George Washington rebelled against the established government of his day. We remember him as a patriot, but to his king and fellow colonists loyal to the king, Washington was the traitor and Benedict Arnold was the patriot.” 

No doubt, Washington saw revolution as a noble effort with extreme risk, including potential confiscation of property, social ostracism, and execution for treason by drawn and quartering!

Per Wikipedia.org, “To be hanged, drawn and quartered was a method of torturous capital punishment used principally to execute men convicted of high treason…  The convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn behind a horse to the place of execution, where he was hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disemboweled, beheaded, and quartered.  His remains would then often be displayed in prominent places.”  Ouch!

It makes me wonder what I would ever be so committed to, with life-or-death conviction and passion, that I would risk such heinous treatment. 

As I write this I am listening to Do you Hear the People Sing?, from the musical Les Miserables, that encourages people to rise up against injustice and oppression in the unsuccessful anti-monarchist Paris Uprising of 1832, and I’m taken by a few lines in the song:

When the beating of your heart

Echoes the beating of the drums

There is a life to start

When tomorrow comes

While I am not convicted to join in revolution, I am being convicted to find and act on my true life purpose – with passion and conviction.  In these lyrics, I “hear” a nugget on life purpose:  When the convictions of my soul are in sync with my actions, a new life starts!