Hopes and Aspirations…
What import does this carry for you?
In my mind, we create those things that are worthy of our aspirations and admire the accomplishments of those who have attained them.
For instance, my 8th grade son is presently interviewing a few people on their feelings about freedom. We think of this as a tangible aspiration, but in reality, it is not something we can touch. We will lay down our lives to attain it; and yet, how do we know we don’t have freedom?
I was just discussing this point with two of my children. My second son, who is 19 and is graduating with a BS in Marketing this session, knows nothing but freedom. My Brother-in-law, who is a 30 year IBM’er, can speak of it very intellectually, yet he knows nothing but freedom. In the bible, a suggestion is made that slaves should be happy as slaves. That sounds horrid. I know a person who is in a minimum security prison. He gets to take writing classes, exercises daily, has his meals made for him (delicious sounding ones, I might add), works and receives a bit of pay, and still wants his freedom. I, on the other hand, have freedom, but live in a prison that says I can’t go and do what I want; there is presently no funding for clothing, extracurriculars, or even eating out; I must maintain the family and the home or they will fall apart. My choices are limited – just as limited as those of a prisoner.
How many people live in a small environment and retrace their steps day in and day out and call that freedom?
My Brother-in-law was full of words of wisdom based on years of experience and knowledge that he has accumulated. My 19 year old son was full of youthful thoughts on the subject and his boiled down to the fact that we can’t possibly know much about freedom if we have never been without it. His definition of freedom was that one gets to do anything. No qualifiers necessary on that word, anything.
My first inclination is to start modifying that word…as long as it doesn’t step on someone’s toes, as long as we don’t profit from someone’s loss, as long as we are all fed and clothed. Then, all of a sudden I find the need to begin qualifying those statements…hard enough to break their toes, but keep free-enterprise in place, full to satisfaction. And then, it becomes necessary to open conversation with the person(s) we would be balancing against.
Uh oh, here’s a new thought. Would there be such a thing as freedom if there were but one person in the world?
How can we aspire toward something we don’t know all the facets of? The United States was built on the premise of freedom. I’ll bet the men who did that had never known the lack of freedom personally, but they surely saw the effects of it on others.
The thing about this is that many of us will admit we are being brainwashed to a certain extent. All we have known since childhood is that adults have hammered into us that freedom is very important and we should work for it and fight for it with all of our might. That would indicate in the background that we are not free and there is a need to be filled.
Perhaps it all goes back to wanting to be free from our parents and their dominion over us? Perhaps it is part of our mass consciousness to be free of any and all ties to anything? It is the urgency we feel to be separate – free from the Universe that makes us then feel the need to return to it. Without one, there would not be the other.
Man, that brings us to the dualistic nature of all things. Opposites working constantly, pushing, pulling, against, and with each other. Day, night, light, dark…freedom, oppression. Some refuse to pay heed to this and say that there is no good or bad, right or wrong, there just is….I don’t know in this regard, though. Freedom should be a “just is”….but there wouldn’t be a name or definition for it without its opposite.
Here’s some interesting lyrics…what do they mean?
Lyrics:
This is freedom
You`re smiling
I`m smiling too
`Cause this is freedom
Together we’ll find the truth
You know it`s freedom
When bad things
Feel so damn good
Eh This is freedom
Can you feel it?
Freedom Eh
The energy in all of us
The flower of the universe
I`m never gonna set you free
You`ll always be a part of me x2
This is freedom
You`re smiling
I`m smiling too
`Cause this is freedom
Together we’ll find the truth
You know it`s freedom
When bad things
Feel so damn good
Ehh Freedom
Can you feel it?
(The energy in all of us
The flower of the universe
I`m never gonna set you free
You`ll always be a part of me x2)
The energy in all of us
The flower of the unïverse
I`m never gonna set you free
You`ll always be a part of me x3
