Are We Free?
While running alongside a river yesterday I observed a small bird dive gracefully toward the water and just as quickly slicing upward into the blue sky. I thought about the freedom of flying. Which lead to thinking about an eagle and how its used as a metaphor for freedom. True freedom: flight, solitude, endless sky, no boundaries… Versus captivity: walls, doors, windows, cages, prisons, bars, locks and keys…
And so I ask. Are we free? Or are we captive? Or worst of all are we captive and think we are free?
Freedom deserves our attention. Freedom from what? Freedom to be you… Freedom to act in accordance with our desires and wishes. Freedom to pursue our dreams. Freedom to love. Freedom to exercise. Freedom to write, to think, to be, to believe, to run, fly, dance, laugh, and play…
To be what we want alongside a pursuit of happiness. Concepts discussed often and flirted with. Be happy… right!!! Simply — simple. We all know its anything but simple. Happiness is messy, complicated, difficult to pin down. Happiness and freedom coexist in a symbiotic relationship. You the organism benefits from both.
Freedom: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants. The state of not being imprisoned or enslaved. When our concern of others opinions of ourselves transcends our own opinion about ourselves we lose freedom. You are enslaved, imprisoned, caged. When we place an ideology above critical thinking we lose freedom. When we place religion or government or political parties above our ability to think we again lose freedom.
Freedom is the act of surrender, acceptance to completely be you without fear of backlash or judgment from your peers or your tribe. Culture, traditions, ideologies, religion, politics, imprison and cage our freedom.
“Freedom is an individual pursuit, not a governmental or religious gift. Freedom must be won over and over again, by challenging our governments and institutions. If we give up and let ignorance win the day, then everyone loses.”
Religious Rehab A Memoir
The individual pursuit is sacred to one’s ability to act in accordance with their own conscience and not swayed by the mob, the tribe or majority. Real freedom is found through living the life you want without causing harm to another. Freedom is the gift, boundless, endless blue skies to those who have the courage to think beyond what they have been taught. Beyond how they have been instructed to see, hear, say and act.
The greatest lie is convincing the people they are free through an ideology or belief, or structure, or a behavior. An ideology leading to freedom, surrender or a saviour… is dangerous and paradoxically leads you away from freedom. Promising freedom to the conformist, to the obedient is deadly to equality and civility.
Our ability to have the courage to be what we feel we must be is the first step to freedom. Nothing short of being you will work. So Be YOU… Be gay, be straight, be curious, be creative, be colourful, be beautiful, be a genius, be strange, be weird, be odd, be different, be very very different… Be Free…
