Freedom

Is freedom just a word, or an idea, as it pertains to life? Presently, I seek to have satisfaction or contentment with words and rarely do I go beyond a word’s definition. What does it mean to actually be free or have freedom? Having actual freedom as opposed to having the word freedom are surely not the same thing. The word “freedom” alone implies that which is past, which in turn means, I live in the past. Can I as a human being live in the past or through the eyes of the past and still be free? I can see I’ve placed more emphasis on the word instead of the verb. Thus, the less there is in the world of actual thing which the word is intended to represent.

FREEDOM

Freedom Restricted

I cannot be free if I feel constrained or see and have limitations. If I am truly free, why am I compelled to say, or do, or be anything? I am forced to choose between what makes me money and what makes me happy. I realize I’m asking a lot of questions which may turn some readers off because they are impatient to a slowed response from inquiry. They simply want to know quickly what is my reply! Who cares about how you arrived there! Just tell me your opinion on whether you are free or not.

Freedom Cannot Be Given

Well, I’m leaning towards the not and that says a lot because purportedly I’m living in the land of the free and the home of the brave. To start with, no man or woman can ‘give’ another man/woman freedom. Because that which can be given can also be taken away. When and why that freedom is given or taken away is then at the whim of another. How then can it be freedom, if someone else can laud that over you. Freedom that is given is freedom that is denied. An exchange is what the former is where I get this for that. In an exchange, I owe you or vice versa for something supplied. That’s not freedom!

Freedom Not Compulsion or Pleasure

Freedom is not compulsion or pleasure seeking. The feeling that I must or must not. Also, any desire to be free in avoidance of something or someone else is not freedom either. As that implies that you are moving away or escaping from that which you know you are to something you believe will be even more desirable. Therefore, a duality to what I am is created and I try to move from what I am towards what I should be over time. That is not freedom!

I realize that I am not free and that I’m very self-centered, yet I need to have the capability to see myself as I am and not as I should be. It is then only I can look to see is it possible for me to be free. But who wants to see their chains? It’s in direct opposition to what we’ve been told to be true. I am a proud person that’s supposedly been given all type of rights and freedom and here I am questioning that very freedom.

Freedom is Not Choice

I think I’ve mistakenly equated freedom with choice. Since, I’m free to move about mostly as I wish and do things as I want, when I want, and how I want to, then I believe myself to be free. But is that freedom? If that choice of movement is restricted, do I then loss my freedom. So, if all my choice based decisions are taken away from me, am I still free? Just because there is choice, doesn’t imply there is freedom to choose.

Freedom Through Negation

I’ve crossed off the list several items which are not freedom. It appears to me that freedom the verb exists only when the former do not. Then, and only then, I am actually free, not through just mere words, but in deed. So, there is no dependence, compulsion, pleasure, or choice in freedom. Where, or should, any of these others exists, then the actuality of freedom is not.

In Closing

There, to my readers who were wishing I hurry to give a reply to my inquiry. I’ve come to it only several hundred words. If I have truly understood through my inquiry what freedom is not, then there is a possibility for freedom to be. In that freedom, there is no ‘I’ who is free. Either freedom exist or it doesn’t. So, is there FREEDOM?