on Freedom.
Why Freedom? Because the answers to our inner quests, a feeling of relief from inner pain, and the desire to be just who we are, unapologetically (not crudely) lie in this one thing....freedom.
My search led me to what James Baldwin writes:
Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be. One hasn’t got to have an enormous military machine in order to be un-free when it’s simpler to be asleep, when it’s simpler to be apathetic, when it’s simpler, in fact, not to want to be free, to think that something else is more important.
See, freedom has to be deeply and single-mindedly desired.....and then it has to be fiercely and diligently worked towards....
Not easy.
Easier to just blame fate.... Drift along with whatever tide one finds oneself in..... Think we are not important, and our lives are not worth a damn anyway..... Let others take all the decisions, make all the plans take all the initiatives....It's easier....
Why express our inner feelings which may lead to uncomfortable moments? Why come out of anaesthetized moments?
Because even one moment of real personal freedom would be worth it all.....
Baldwin says, 'One is only as free as one wants to be.' Though difficult to come by, and one has to work very hard - no, desperately hard - for every moment of freedom, I think....I believe it will be worth the effort....
And if you ask why freedom is so important, the answer ---- when you are hurting inside of yourself, when you feel dissatisfied with the way your life is going, when you feel trapped emotionally and psychologically ------ that is your soul wanting to be free.