Consider this... - Published December 2022
Consider This...
Series from the Energy Syndicate - December 2022 / January 2023
What will be free?
Desire to make choices in life, to achieve big, small, short and long term goals is assumed to be the right of free people. What is free? Do you consider yourself to be free?
Two simple questions. In a country of the ‘free world’, the nations answer would be “Yes, we are free”, yet the consideration of what ‘free’ is, opens doorways to paths that, to some, may appear to be lacking what they envisage to be free; whereas to others, they are enjoyed as a charge of empowerment.
“A man trapped in a cellar of a house, breaks out, cries “I’m free” and finds he is on a small desert island surrounded by the endless ocean.”
A couple, bound together in a bad marriage, divorce and declare to their friends that they now feel free.
The situations where barriers and bonds have prevented the individuals from being at peace, making choices with the freedom to enjoy the long view of hopes, dreams and anticipation.
Here are two more examples:
A man is without a home and a place to be. No place where he can feel secure, at peace and plan. He needs a house, a place to know and call home. He gets a house surrounded by the fresh glistening ocean. “I’m free. I now know my home and a place to be.”
Two strangers meet, for the first time in life they flourish in a union of companionship. Oppressive concerns melt away. Their outlook becomes rich and inspired – energised with joy, aspiration and accomplishment. Freedoms they relish and those in their company get inspired by them.
In many ways, the physical aspects of the above scenarios are, to the distant onlooker, all the same yet the experience of the individuals is very different. It could be almost insignificant in appearance but the most subtle of changes in perception can change what is experienced.
How often does a cold encounter for a person who is lost, scared, alone, change when a genuine hand of support is placed on them. The bolstering empowerment that can create can yield great rewards from the most unexpected places.
Rousing words of encouragement maybe, but, is there another level of what is ‘free’?
Consider the earthworm. Is it free? Is it a prisoner of the soil, condemned for its existence to its role as an earthworm or is it free to live its life making its choices?
‘Free as a bird” or enslaved to be a tool of an ecosystem? People talk of free will. Is it all living things that have free will? If not, is it only humans, or is it a select few of the species? The domestic cat for example seems to generally do what it wants to. Is that an illustration of the same free will humans exercise or is it a specific feline free will?
Do all living things look for and aspire to accomplish similar things? It seems unlikely although the aspiration to survive, feed and reproduce would appear to hold threads of uniformity. Is freedom something that is species specific? The perceived freedom of a person is still a constraint of what it is to be human. Just in the same way that a worm living freely does not aspire one day to be an astronaut.
Talking of astronauts, how do they perceive their freedom? Do they consider themselves to be explorers of the vastness of the cosmos or imprisoned in a vulnerable shell hurtling through the inky blackness? Maybe both to varying amounts. Perceptions of freedom could be on the balance of the finest of margins. No doubt, those of ‘the right stuff’ tread more regularly on the positive side – as is true for many of you in the experiences you have in your own lives.
Humans sense they are different from other forms of life, for a multitude of reasons, there is however a flow in the passage of life that sees a destiny certain, that to some may be in conflict with what they understand to be freedom and free will. The thought that destiny can’t exist makes some feel comfortable; they don’t like the thought that they are not, in some way, in control of what they are and what they do. Maybe the Neanderthal had similar thoughts; their destiny however was as certain as ours is.
Individually, humans get about their activities, often in very similar situations as others are – such as their neighbour, but can have very different personal perceptions of the liberty they have to live their own lives. eg. Free to choose to engage with an interest group, as opposed to another who feels duty bound and trapped with a self imposed burden.
Collectively however, humans have sprinted, in a very small moment of history, from being hunter gatherers to whom the Earth was massive – in which there were distant lands known through story telling, and other places undiscovered, shrouded in mystery and made myth in imaginations - to a species that is finding itself engaged in projects that holds an awareness of self and place in a very different position in the mind. No mindset of 100 years ago, of a body of people, let alone a world community, would ever have imagined a moment that people would be on the path to targetting asteroids with the will to divert their course to protect the planet! What overarching consciousness has led to that situation? Is it by chance, an act of freewill or a response to a future need that has been seen by ‘other worldly’ forces countless years ago. The steps needed to get to this stage, right now, are massive. A myriad of unfathomable sparks of inspiration and ‘freewill’ decisions, yet their actions are collectively in a flow of destiny that is determined and sure to allow ‘life’ to mature; without avoidable injury causing any disturbance.
A World community of life – an ecosystem that is more than just the planet we live on. Each part, playing its part – each act of free living directed by the nature of the species. All unique yet cocooned in uniform characters and type – all linked by the wonder of life. Being life, part of life, a life that is of this moment with a destiny crafted. A shining gem that is loved, cared for by God where sentinels stand, ensuring the path and securing completion.
Do you, people, consider such care to be in conflict with your freedom and freewill? Are you happy that you are part of something great? Any who can not settle until they find the “exact truth” will find themselves unsettled; restless and incomplete unless their enquiries are gentle and supported by a joyful heart. In the same way a man on a sturdy boat, can enjoy the peace of the knowledge that he is on a sturdy boat, but, will find the journey troubled if he was to let his attention be drawn to worry about the “what ifs”, concerning the manufacture of the materials of the boat, or the craftsmanship of the maker.
The former, if they were to fight such care, would be akin to an ear taking up arms against the body. The latter will be able to look for and be inspired by the wonder – a long view supported by faith.
