FREEDOM... it’ s all in the interpretation
Freedom! What a wonderful word. What does it mean to you? I can picture a Prince and Princess riding off into the Sunset to live happily ever after.
Free, freer, freest, the dictionary says is to be able to act at will, not compelled or restrained. Really? Is that what we want? Slaves want to be free of Masters, children want to be freed from parents, natives want to be freed from Colonialists, Workers want to be free of bosses. Does that always bring Freedom? Not on your life mate! I hear people say they would be free if only they hadn’ t a wife, a husband, children, a boss, a demanding job, a mother-in-law. Dream on Pal you wouldn’ t know what to do with Freedom! Others will say they would be free if they had a big bank balance, health, an understanding wife / husband, no family ties. Good on yer mate sorry you are such a bogan! Maybe we just need Freedom from ourselves? We have free air, free thoughts, most of us have free sight and free hearing, free speech is a bit of a myth but we do have a free choice of attitude and use of whatever brain we have. Surely with the right attitude we can be free of most things. In first World countries we do have a lot of Freedom. Do people appreciate it? OMG! Just listen to the complaints! The Politicians don’ t know what they’ re talking about and grab everyone’ s money, they say and as for the ever present dog fights between the different parties who are so busy picking each other to pieces they haven’ t time to concentrate on ruling the country.( here, I agree). People say the Police are too soft on the Criminals and too hard on the innocent( who’ s that)? And they are never in the right place at the right time. If they are over enthusiastic in repelling some drug-crazed adolescent they are fired if they are tolerant they are dead although of course they will be honoured for their bravery. The Health Department gets a lot of flak as usual. The poor, mostly dedicated staff of the hospitals, they complain don’ t have time, patience, empathy, sympathy or anything else to deal with their delicate, empty heads, scrawny necks, floppy boobs, flabby stomachs, voluptuous bums and bulbous or claw-like feet! The Doctors don’ t know what they are talking about, they reckon, and bury their mistakes. Well haven’ t they always but they try damn hard to save you first. We are all mostly a waste of Oxygen anyway and past masters at blaming everything except ourselves. How about us taking charge of our own lives
and not always having to have someone to blame for all our mostly self-imposed misery!
Let’ s get back on track. Children are not free to decide whether they go to school or not. They need schooling to lead worthwhile lives. They are not free to choose their own parents luckily, or they would ALL be impossible instead of just half of them!
What do you think would give you freedom? To have everything you want and to be able to do whatever you please, I can hear you saying. Well I think not, that’ s not Freedom, that is greed and you would never be satisfied. To be permanently on holiday, same thing and you’ d get bored. To have a thousand virgins at your disposal! No not even that! You might die happy but that’ s not Freedom. And Girls your fifty shades of Grey choice! Seems a pretty exhausting and dicey way of trying to gain anything let alone freedom.
I think everyone needs constraint and control to gain Freedom. Nelson Mandela comes to mind as an example. He would never have been such a great man without his loss of Freedom. He wrote A Long Road to Freedom which illustrates Freedom does not come easily I actually haven’ t read the whole book but I often read Invictus the poem he loved. Which ends: I am the Master of my fate; I am the captain of my Soul.
If you can realise that the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence, that money doesn’ t give you freedom, power is dangerous and that many of the things you want are not what you need. Open the doors to your heart and push out greed and envy, jealousy and self-indulgence and most importantly fear and let in love and respect, appreciation and acceptance, confidence and tranquillity, and that, surely my friend, will give you Freedom.
Di Kalamunda Group, WA
What light is to the eyes- what air is to the lungs- what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man. 27