A Declaration of Interdependence
Reflections from the 4th of July 2025
I appropriated the 4th of July a long time ago. That is to say that I took this holiday that marks the signing of a piece of paper that was not written with me in mind and made it my own. I don’t think that Queer Jewish women were who Thomas Jefferson and his ilk were writing for on those summer days in Philadelphia in 1776. When I was in college in Montana in the late 1990’s a few of my friends and I threw a 4th of college party where guests were invited to come dressed as their fave revolution or revolutionary. We had a “soap box” where guests could stand and talk to the crowd as the character or event they were embodying. It was a wild night to be sure.
I went dressed as the sexual revolution to that party. I wore condom earrings, had a dildo holster, and kissed several people that night. I think that was what I was after that day was feeling sexy. not revolution. That in and of itself was a revolution for me as I was on the precipice of leaving a shitty relationship and coming into my own identity in a new way. Naming those feelings and acting on them felt like revolution at that phase of my life. Choosing to leave a small college town where I was an emerging leader in local activism and moving to a far away place to go to graduate school felt like a radical act of independence at that point in my life. On that steamy summer 4th of July I felt internal fireworks of curiosity igniting and a path for me appearing that I’d not seen before.
In 2025, as in every year, revolution feels a lot of ways to a lot of people. Independence feels as many different ways as there are to actualize it. To me on this 4th of July morning as I write from a quiet house on a rainy day revolution feels quiet. In a good and achievable way, revolution feels small. Revolution to me, at this phase of my life, feels like listening more than talking. It feels like slowing down and noticing. It feels like prioritizing checking in with friends over organizing my cabinets. It feels like hitting the snooze button on the alarm so that I can hold hands in bed with my husband a few more minutes. It feels like a nap. It feels like quietly investing in and supporting movement leaders and practices promising systems of care, creativity, and innovation.
Revolution in 2025, to me, feels like liberating myself from noise. It feels like discernment. It feels like doing the very unsexy work of organizing our household’s debt with a new payment structure. It feels like savoring time with my teenager boys before they are men out there living their own lives. It looks like going to the gym and PT everyday. It looks like taking an insane amount of medicine so that I get through my days with no back pain. It looks like accepting help and care and comfort from people who love me.
What do independence + revolution feel like to you today? What would your Declaration of Independence sound like if you wrote that for yourself today? Mine would have a different name all together: I would craft a Declaration of Interdependence.
Sera’s Declaration of Interdependence
In the course of human events, it becomes necessary from time to time for people to dissolve our political brands which have connected us with another in service of something that sees us all clearly. We call on the powers of the earth to which we recommit to being brave stewards to guide us in our systems of care. We recognize that the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God as experienced by individuals on our own terms and these perspectives often bias our hands and hearts. We endeavor towards decent, integrity imbued respect towards the actualized opinions of humankind. We recognize that this country’s promise requires that we declare the causes which impel us to the separation from each other, then find our way back to our interdependence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all humans are created equal. We are endowed by something unknown or understood with certain unalienable Rights. That primary among these rights are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their power from the consent of the governed. That whenever a form or expression of this government becomes destructive to these ends that it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute a new iteration of government laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to us shall seem most likely to effect our Safety and Happiness in equal measure for everyone.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. Accordingly, all experiences that mankind are disposed to suffer may guide us to abolish the forms to which we are accustomed and encourage us to try something new. And when a long train of abuses and usurpations puts forth a design to reduce us under absolute despotism it is our right, it is our duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for our collective future security.
Let’s get to work on recreating this place we call the United States of America as a country where our government does the hard work of repair, where it takes responsibility, and where it ensures that everyone is cared for.
See y’all out there.
Hey! I saw your post on my homepage and wanted to drop by and send you some good vibes. Whenever you have a moment, I’d be grateful if you could do the same. I’m always happy to support and lift each other up!