[Week 166] A free man
The incarcerated person wants freedom. The adolescent wants freedom. The employee wants freedom. In practice we are talking about different things. That's why I find interesting what @galenkp proposed this week. Maybe if we state it we could find only one answer.
WHAT IS NOT FREEDOM
To me, freedom does not mean doing whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want, with whomever you want (very few teenagers understand this, by the way). If it did, chaos and disorder would reign. Like a highway with no signs, traffic lights or traffic laws. If all drivers are deciding on their own what is best to drive their vehicles, it could be dangerous even for our own lives. Using a vehicle to listen to music on the beach with our friends sounds good, but not so much if you want to meet next to a nursing home.
In short, some order and laws are needed for us to be free and safe.
WHAT IS FREEDOM (for me).
It is using to the fullest whatever is available in a responsible and reasonable way, without being a danger to oneself or others.
We have freedom of thought when we can openly choose what we like in the various aspects of life. Choosing the clothes I wear, the colors I like, my favorite fruit, etc. It doesn't have to be the same as those around me, because it's not necessarily bad, and others understand. Where does the issue of boundaries come in? When I avoid thoughts that harm me and could harm others, such as desiring what belongs to another, holding grudges, or adopting thoughts contrary to what is obviously the right thing to do.
When we have freedom of action it implies a responsibility for the lives of others. As teenagers, many of us wanted to arrive after the evening hours set by our parents, to go to specific places with our friends, to get behind the wheel and drive a car, to be given that freedom. But some by not being prepared for situations like that have harmed themselves and others, and I'm on that team. Perhaps if I had taken into account the reasonable limits placed on me, based on my capabilities I would have saved a few milliliters of blood.
Obviously, as we get older we have more freedoms, but that doesn't imply that we no longer have limits. Although we have the right and ability to direct ourselves more freely in the places, at the times and with the people we choose, we are still responsible for others. Even using our freedom to help others contributes to the order, well-being and collective advancement of the place where we live. No law is needed for that.
SO, IS IT TRUE FREEDOM IF THERE ARE LIMITS?
To me, we can still feel completely free and at the same time respect the limits we have. Do you eat dirt simply because you can? That would hurt you. If someone says to you: "I think we should eat dust. I am not free. To feel free, I must be able to eat dust." What would you say? Or imagine someone trying to live to the fullest without respecting the limits of our own body, perhaps by avoiding not sleeping for days, or avoiding drinking water for days. Can he or she be happy? No one says: "What a bummer! It's my turn to sleep again. We shouldn't be sleepy, I feel like a prisoner because I have to sleep!" Our own body sets a limit, we have to sleep, to have the natural processes that our brain does while we sleep, and replenish our body's energy even at the cellular level.
And here comes something interesting: who feels bad about sleeping? Who harmed themselves by sleeping? How do you feel when you sleep? So even respecting limits can be pleasurable.
Finally, in my definition I put "whatever is available ". Why? Because within the reasonable limits we have there is a great breadth of things we can choose and enjoy. An example: the places where we can go. Without leaving the borders of our country, there is a great amplitude of places to know, to observe, that even change with each season of the year. So, because I can't go to the moon, is it reasonable to say: "I am not free because I cannot go to the moon "? That would be focusing on what you don't have, and disregarding what you do have. That's what I try to show in the following picture I took myself. Sometimes on the beach we find buoys that mark the safe part of the beach for those who want to swim. Within that wide space adults and children can play with balls, racquets, swim, float, chat, laugh, talk, sunbathe, relax, clear their heads, etc. You can be safe and happy within that wide margin. Now, you see a boat outside those boundaries. So, if you want to be there, get a boat and learn how to drive it, or simply respect the one who can be there and don't envy them.
Likewise, children have a wide range of things they can do at home on the schedule and with the people their parents allow. It is smart to manage this concept, and avoid feeling deprived by the things you can't do and rather focus on the thousands of positive, productive, beneficial, joyful and timely things you can do.
Feeling free in something that many of us want and seek. Some do not achieve it, and continue to feel imprisoned. But a smaller group are those who, without there being a law for that, use their freedom better, choosing not only to benefit themselves, but others. Surely, you are one of those, dear reader.
Banner: Made by me in GIMP with my own images and free resources from the site pfpmaker.com/
Language: Post written in Spanish and then translated into English through DeepL