I can hear Janis Joplin’s raspy voice as she belts out, “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.”
I’ve been thinking about freedom, what we do have to lose, and how we can choose to see beyond ourselves.
What does it mean to be free? Why do some have freedom when for others it remains out of reach and held hostage by dictators and authoritarian governments?
Even within democratic countries, policies, laws, biases, and hatred deny large swaths of the population the rights and privileges of freedom. Sometimes the loss of freedom doesn’t come from exterior forces but from voices inside ourselves. Living chained to the past and confined by thoughts, we deny our own freedom to live in joy.
The paradox of living freely while imprisoned either physically or emotionally poses another perspective of how we live in freedom. Freedom begins within us and encompasses our individual choices as much as the cultural influences of our environment. Perhaps freedom isn’t something you claim or receive. But losing it can drain the river of hope that sustains our resiliency and ability to rise above the darkest hours.
William Faulkner came closer to the truth when he wrote, “We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.” If we look at freedom as something we do, the question becomes:
What will I do today that opens the doors for me and everyone to live their best life?
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