First United Methodist Church
On Freedom
My newsvine writing assignment for the month was on Freedom, and as it were I was not supposed to edit as I go, but part of me can't help it...at any rate this is what I wrote.
Freedom:
As I start the car and drive away from the babysitter’s house I am free, for a couple of hours before I have to go to sleep and get ready for the next day of work. I wish I could have more time, but alas I do not. As much as I love my child, and my husband some times I just wish for a week alone, with no toys to trip over, yida yada and the lot. Then again I remember how lonely that freedom was even though I was indeed free to have my time as I wished.
Freedom means many things to many people, the freedom to pursue your happiness, the freedom to write or say or do what you want. When does freedom to do what I want become harmful to another?
Freedom from housework would be great if I could afford a maid. Not that I couldn’t mind you, but to be able to pay the maid what they were actually worth. How can I be free if someone else has to clean up behind me for minimum wage? Is freedom for all fair for all? It is an experiment where the result remains to always be seen, and hindsight is twenty twenty.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh freedom at work from the constant blaring of HLN, which really isn’t news, it’s drivel packaged for people who don’t really want to think about what’s really happening in the world. Is ignorance a form of freedom? I mean if you don’t know but what’s going on in your own little microcosm you can enjoy life as it is right? I think of my Mom and how she concerns herself with her flowers, and cards and friends, and family, and business. Not that she doesn’t have any awareness of what is going on in the world, it’s just that she chooses to focus on what is important to her, is that a form of freedom?
I find it really hard to stop the inner editor to write freely, I’m so schooled to think I must be grammatically correct, and then there is the Microsoft Word, which tells me when I misspell something or the grammar isn’t right. Maybe I should not use a word processor at all. Too bad I threw out the old typewriter, it doesn’t care about spelling and grammar, never did. Freedom from computers telling me I’m wrong.
Freedom from computers indeed…for I work for a computer company, and even if I did not I am sure that computers would somehow creep into everything I did. It is kinda sad to realize that we will never be free in that utopian sense. There will always be bills to pay and children to raise jobs to contend with. Even when one has achieved retirement, and the kids have flown the nest, they return with grandchildren and their own job and life woes. There will always be bills to pay, and work to be done, whether retired or not.
I guess there is no true freedom until we close our eyes for good, at least not in the utopian garden of eden sense.
However I am glad that I have the freedom to choose where to live, where to work, where to worship, and who to vote for, and to speak up when I feel like it. I would like to thank all the men and women who have thought, and wrote and fought for my right to have such freedoms.
What does freedom mean to you?
Freedom:
As I start the car and drive away from the babysitter’s house I am free, for a couple of hours before I have to go to sleep and get ready for the next day of work. I wish I could have more time, but alas I do not. As much as I love my child, and my husband some times I just wish for a week alone, with no toys to trip over, yida yada and the lot. Then again I remember how lonely that freedom was even though I was indeed free to have my time as I wished.
Freedom means many things to many people, the freedom to pursue your happiness, the freedom to write or say or do what you want. When does freedom to do what I want become harmful to another?
Freedom from housework would be great if I could afford a maid. Not that I couldn’t mind you, but to be able to pay the maid what they were actually worth. How can I be free if someone else has to clean up behind me for minimum wage? Is freedom for all fair for all? It is an experiment where the result remains to always be seen, and hindsight is twenty twenty.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh freedom at work from the constant blaring of HLN, which really isn’t news, it’s drivel packaged for people who don’t really want to think about what’s really happening in the world. Is ignorance a form of freedom? I mean if you don’t know but what’s going on in your own little microcosm you can enjoy life as it is right? I think of my Mom and how she concerns herself with her flowers, and cards and friends, and family, and business. Not that she doesn’t have any awareness of what is going on in the world, it’s just that she chooses to focus on what is important to her, is that a form of freedom?
I find it really hard to stop the inner editor to write freely, I’m so schooled to think I must be grammatically correct, and then there is the Microsoft Word, which tells me when I misspell something or the grammar isn’t right. Maybe I should not use a word processor at all. Too bad I threw out the old typewriter, it doesn’t care about spelling and grammar, never did. Freedom from computers telling me I’m wrong.
Freedom from computers indeed…for I work for a computer company, and even if I did not I am sure that computers would somehow creep into everything I did. It is kinda sad to realize that we will never be free in that utopian sense. There will always be bills to pay and children to raise jobs to contend with. Even when one has achieved retirement, and the kids have flown the nest, they return with grandchildren and their own job and life woes. There will always be bills to pay, and work to be done, whether retired or not.
I guess there is no true freedom until we close our eyes for good, at least not in the utopian garden of eden sense.
However I am glad that I have the freedom to choose where to live, where to work, where to worship, and who to vote for, and to speak up when I feel like it. I would like to thank all the men and women who have thought, and wrote and fought for my right to have such freedoms.
What does freedom mean to you?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Pastor Dave on -
I'll have to think about what freedom means to means to me. There is the obvious about being able to do what I want when I want (within limits). Then there are the freedoms that are immaterial but are so important in our society. Can we define freedom with out using the word freedom or its derivatives?
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Permalink Reply by Russ Simmons on -
Dare to dream.
Freedom is about dreaming and achieving the impossible dream(s) that we can. If we try.
People in Tehran are dreaming and achieving with possible great sacrifice for daring to dream.
They may pay with their lives. They know that.
Let's pray for them, to send them strength to dream, and wisdom to know the limits of their world.
I thank the Lord for my beautiful wife and the wonderful daughter she brought into my life.
I am humbled before the Lord for the women in my life, because they are great and they are free and their freedom is perfected in the Lord and I get to play a small role in that when I am able.
Freedom is a bird on the bough.
I watch it and it is all it own.
And I learn slowly to chrerish that,
always....
Russell Simmons
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