La Liberté

"Something there is that doesn't love a wall..." said Robert Frost in his poem "Mending Wall." Being the Romantic poet he was, it's easy to interpret his words as having to do with nature. Here, he says, walls have no place in nature. Why? Nature is wild and free, sprawling, uninhibited, and walls are the antithesis of freedom. I sometimes think of this when I consider the levees that protect our city and they actually do. The Great Mississippi River is "contained" by man-made barriers of rock and earth, but the wild river resists containment. The challenge of human engineering is to keep it bounded by these walls because, as we all well know, once that river breaches those boundaries, it will never again be contained. It's just not meant to be.

But we can also expand the definition of wall to include those we put up in our minds and around our hearts. And since we are nature - made of stardust, water, and earth - we are naturally compelled to be free as well. People go crazy confined in a cell for too long - we yearn for freedom. But what is it? Freedom transcends an outward appearance or an outward structure. Think about it... some people with all of the wealth they could ever need and more find themselves enslaved by drugs or greed. Freedom has to be more than what society calls free.

I propose:

Freedom is...

Taking the first step

Making the first move

Falling from a plane at 10,000 feet

Hiking a mountain

Standing at the top of that mountain

Sitting solitary in nature and taking a deep, full, restorative breath

Powering through trepidation to do something you've wanted to do but have feared

Having a place where you can always find sanctuary

Knowing who you are

Being true to yourself

Knowing when to quit... and being able to

Being able to say no

Being able to say yes

Knowing when either is appropriate

Thinking for yourself; questioning everything

On the inside