Freedom?

This past week, we celebrated freedom. I wonder what everyone was thinking. It really is a matter of perspective, isn’t it? For the person who escaped to this country from the tyranny of dictatorship and worse, freedom represents liberation in a dramatic sense. To the person who escaped from a physically or an emotionally abusive relationship then freedom means release from the nightmare of control and domination. To the person who has been set free from the harsh reality of financial debt then the sense of release is palpable. And on, and on, the freedom stories could go.


But, what is freedom in its purest form? It seems to me that freedom in its purest form is “opportunity”. Freedom really is the “opportunity to choose”. Certainly, when my choice limits, inhibits, or eliminates someone else’s opportunity to choose then issues are raised. Laws have to be created to protect the innocent in those cases. It is so easy for government itself to move beyond protection into inhibition, if not interference, with regard to freedom.


The question for me, however, involves my relationship to freedom. How committed am I to keeping freedom alive in my world? It is vital for me to remember that I have the responsibility to the people in my world to stand for freedom in giving them the best opportunity to choose in their lives. I also need to recognize that I need to work hard to keep that same freedom alive in my own life. Freedom without discipline is just bondage in disguise. I wrote that a long time ago. It would do me well to remember it. How about you?