Of freedom

The title reminds me of Gibran's writing. Romantic, nostalgic, clean. And then there is Nelson Mandela's "Long walk to freedom" - and immediately my gut says, yes. Freedom, lost in the first months of our sojourn to the planet, is won back in pieces as we gain courage along the way.  I have been listening to some TED talks as I work away for the so-manyeth week of my life behind a keyboard. They say this:

Freedom begins with knowing what you want - rather than accepting the life-model handed to you by your growing-up circumstances. Know thyself. Be clear.

It follows on to making choices that support what you want - where you live, how you prefer to eat, how you prefer to spend your time. Then living with the consequences of those choices.

This means taking responsibility for your choices. It means condoning slave-wages when you drink certain brands of coffee. It means killing off a species of rare animal when you buy a certain aphrodisiac. It means contributing to the dismantling of beloved landscapes when we put fossil fuel into our cars. And when we think this way, discover which of these effects of our actions we really care about, it informs our choices with even more clarity.

And so it goes on.

This is not a simple idea for me, this Freedom. I understand the critical mass activist power of this way of thinking. But just off the top of my head I would say freedom for me represents the ability to create in the world as I dream. Sounds a bit flaky. So, toned down: freedom from confinement, freedom from my own and others' insanity. Unlikely. Cosmologically: freedom from this mortal coil. Inevitable in a long-term way.

So, to be more practical in my approach I am trying this over the years - to systematically remove from my thinking the trammels of paradigm, to consider more and more impossible things before breakfast. To make real connections with the people I work with, buy from, live near. To live up to fewer expectations of others and more of my own. To play more in my own way - with food, colour, ideas. To go down ever more rabbit holes to find out which are viable and which are decoys.