Freedom
“He
that is kind is free, though he be a slave; he that is cruel is a slave, though
he be a king.”
St.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
All
this month I am writing about kindness, gratitude and freedom. Since we celebrate all of them,
it seems appropriate to take a deeper dive into them. Gratitude, it seems to me
is a way of life—an optimistic, hopeful, joyful way of life. Freedom is something
else that we talk about in clichés without giving much thought to what it truly
means or how to achieve it. I think we've been taught that freedom is something
we have a right to, and that we gain it by force. We hear the claim, “Freedom
isn’t free,” meaning that someone must fight and die for it. If only it were
that simple. It seems to me that we have sent our young to fight and die far
too many times, yet still we yearn for freedom. Winning wars is an oxymoron;
even if you “win” it’s a temporary fix. It only allows a moment’s reprieve from
oppression. There will always be despots and demigods who live to ensnare the
unwitting.
Thomas
Jefferson said, “Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppression
of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day.” I know he
meant well, but unfortunately his notion of “general enlightenment” did not
extend to the people he enslaved—nor to women, I might add. Enlightenment, in
Jefferson’s day, (1743-1826), was the domain of aristocratic white men only. But
all of us want to be free of tyranny.
I
recall Jesus telling the rich young man who wanted to go to heaven to honor his
father and mother and to not lie, steal, or kill anyone (uh-oh, there goes our
theory of war being righteous). Instead, he told the young man to go and sell
all he owned and give the money to the poor, and then come and follow him. (Mark
10:19-20) Obviously, Jesus thought freedom lay in not having a lot of
possessions to weigh you down.
I think
St. Augustine was right. Freedom is a state of mind. If you are consumed with
your own security, and weighed down by all that you must protect, it is hard to
feel free. If you believe that someone is waiting in the wings to take away all
that you have, (like the rich young man) you will go away sad and scared. When
we feel as though we can’t have enough, or consume enough, or possess enough to
make us happy, we are not free. But if we can look out our window and cherish
the bright sunlight on the golden autumn leaves, the clouds scuttling overhead,
and the silly squirrel hanging upside down on the tree trunk outside, we are
free. As Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) said, “Freedom and love go together.”
Not freedom and war, not freedom with the protection of a fortress, but freedom
comes from being vulnerable enough to love without expectation. As it turns out,
“freedom is free.”
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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