Freedom is free, but you have to take it.

Happy Fourth of July! That's what we say to each other in the US today. We cheerfully mouth the words without thinking too much of another holiday. We think more about fireworks and barbeques than we do about the Revolutionaries that recaptured their lives from an oppressive British monarchy 270 years ago. This morning I was mowing my lawn, thinking of how I was not free from yard work. It struck me then that we are not free unless we forcibly take our freedom from whomever or whatever holds it. Our liberty cannot be bought on any level. It has no price. Freedom is what we are born to. No matter where we are, in which country, under which regime. A person cannot purchase it. If it has to be bought, then someone other than the buyer controls it. It isn't really freedom. That is because if one pays for liberty then the seller can always change the terms, or cancel the transaction. In the US many workers grind away for fifty weeks a year for two weeks of vacation time. For many that vacation is paid. But even then they are not free. Many work on those vacations, working during the supposed "paid time off." Even if they don't work a lick over their vacation, they are bound to return to their labor and their bills. When a person is free they are not bound to return to any state of being, good or bad. There is no elasticity in the conditions of a free person's life. That free man may turn to any direction and go without being limited by the anchors of unwanted commitment. Being committed to what you want is not the opposite of being free, it is the epitome of freedom. Freedom to chose and to direct your own life. Again, this freedom cannot be bought. It has to be taken and jealously guarded. It is a state of mind that allows one to say no to any limit or preconception. I did not want to say that someone who works for another cannot be free, but I think I must. True, a worker can be happy at their job, and love their coworkers, but they are always a servant in a master-servant relationship. It matters not how much they are paid, they are still at the beck, call and demand of another. Their lives can be turned upside down by a downsizing or new and less favorable supervisor. Is that free? Happiness and freedom go hand in hand. In bondage can anyone ever be happy? If freedom and happiness are equal, and money can't buy happiness, then it must be true that freedom can not be bought with money either. Take control of your comings and goings. Don't be at the mercy of another. Don't be a slave to debt for things that you do not need. Don't fear what your boss might say. Shed your bonds and do what makes you happy, because being happy is the same as being free.