Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.Mahatma Gandhi
The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.
Thucydides
Many men and women in their 40s and 50s are feeling the panic of confinement. By this time in their career they have made their way to a management position with many people directly or tangentially dependent upon them for their own livelihood. They have children who “need” ipods, cars, laptops, and as little contact with parents as possible. They have a spouse who seems a bit faded and jaded by the daily grind of work, cook, clean, TV and bed. They have car payments, and college savings payments, health insurance and orthodontics’ bills. They have a mortgage that demands two salaries to meet and property taxes that keep rising. They plan and save for the annual family vacation, but even that is filled with schedules, airplane travel, and disappointed expectations.
They daydream about waking up and having nothing to do and no one to answer to. In this free world they putter about the house and nap when they need to nap, they go for walks with their dog unleashed and free to chase the seagulls it will never catch. And in this daydream a lover usually appears who wants nothing but a few moments in our day to exchange pure physical pleasure, someone with whom they can ask for whatever they want without shame or fear. They want a lot of things. Their hunger is deep and scratches inside.
But they work their way out of this aching place by imaging the cost of that freedom. What would total freedom mean? It would mean uncertainty and insecurity. Nothing would be solid. Freedom has no boundaries to lean against or edges to fence around. It is fluid and open and limitless, qualities the human ego cannot abide by. And so, for those few who have prayed for freedom and walk towards it, know this: there is nothing so terrifying as sailing without the rudder of ego guiding us into safe and safer ports. And.. There is nothing so beautiful as to feel ourselves held and supported by something way larger than our ego can possibly conceive. It not only requires losing the rudder, it requires stepping out of the boat altogether.
I have often imagined that true freedom is the ability to move, with out the expectations of out come. To live each day with the belief that nothing is worth more than this day, given, received and lived, with an abundance of joy.
The happiest people I know have bills, but they live in the here, and laugh about the yesterdays and pin nothing on tomorrow.
Freedom, it means so many different things…
Personally, I’ve tried thousands of times, for decades to explain the true meaning of “freedom”… Real freedom. It’s like describing Rock n Roll; everyone knows what it is, but they just can’t put their finger on exactly what the hell it is…
I’ll give you all a hint: both come from one’s ability to allow one’s self a particularly liberating mindset. Think. But think less. FEEL MORE. yeah, and throw off them shackles, man. Rules are for idiots who need to be ordered around their entire lives. I have no use for “rules/laws, because I have a rock solid moral compass.
- S
Your letters from an open heart came today, and the first little quote, Washed thru me like summer rain.
I just posted on my blog about my anxiety with dealing with the labels that are heaped upon me…
and how they feel like weights.
thanks, this brought me a tremendous smile..
Right now, today it’s so much more for so many than feeling the panic of confinement. If you’re a single mother who’s raising kids just barely scraping by w/the basics worrying every month whether there will be enough money for the mortgage, food, and gas to get to work let alone any extra for emergencies and you’re just a hair over the amount allowed to receive any kind of assistance being “supported by something way larger than our ego can possibly conceive” won’t keep the house out of foreclosure, or bankruptcy or provide for the next meal. Tangible assistance must be made available only then can one be in a frame of mind to “step out of the boat”.
Kd, I got you, crystal clear..! Thing is: Terms such as “Tough times” mean different things to different people. Everything is relative, depending on one’s perspective, but also on one’s reality. Fact is; some people simply cannot comprehend what a hard life, real bad times is. The reasons for this vary, but the bottom line is some of us have (well-off, solid family ties, for instance) lifelines that we always know are there for us and some of us don’t. We have to go it alone. Sure, the notion that “sailing without the rudder of ego” is appealing. Problem with that for some of us is it’s tough “sailing” when you’re taking on heavy water or worse, sitting on, or headed for; the ocean floor. Obviously, “tough times” or “times are bad” mean wildly different things to myself than they do to, say, Annie.
… I sincerely hope we can; all of us, somehow emerge from these truly hard times… Wind up standing on solid ground. Tougher and stronger having stared down this adverse crap. Believe it..!
- S