Solitude, reflection, realization, revolution.

This Saturday morning, sitting to the east of the rising sun, I ponder the relevance of life, pursuit of happiness and freedom. We speak freely these words to condone the killing of many thousands of people. We make these the reasons for our continual unabated spread of misery. War, no matter which ‘side’ you’re on, is a creation of visions, smells, tastes … experiences that redefine what and how you verbalize … how you visualize the strongest of negative emotions. Despair, Grief, Vengeance, Sorrow, and Loathing are all created obstacles of Love, Acceptance, Hope, Forgiveness, and Happiness. The question festers in my mind; what is Freedom? Is it necessary for the Pursuit of Happiness?

Freedom is more then a feeling, a philosophy, or an ideology, it can be concretely defined by simply observing the human animal and the abilities we have evolved into being. We can think and obtain conclusions from obscure descriptions of perceived reality that surrounds us. “I think therefore I am” – Descartes. The ability to transport oneself, not only with the extended limbs, but with all inventions our curious and able aggregate minds have created. The ability to move others emotionally and to regroup them into a collective force in order to drive the inevitable change that will transpire is a driving force in the control of the planet we occupy. The future is simply the total of all consequences to present day action. Gathering like minds is obviously essential to being free.

The elimination of being able to speak any word thought, the confinement of a person or a people, to a given plot of a cubical concrete surrounding or a territory vastly inferior in resources to accommodate the forced inhabitants, the organized government/police/army presences that use tactful strategy to eliminate the gathering of the masses, are all inhibitors of Freedom.

Secondly, if we are to pursue happiness, should we not quest into what happiness is? This is a more obscure idea, or notion, and is harder to define then Freedom. It is nevertheless found within us all. We know when we are individually happy, we laugh, sometimes to tears, we love, and we feel proud of our children. We know when tears are formed, and despair reaches our inner core, we’ve all felt, regardless of other’s judgements to the reason, depression. We all know pain and joy. This innate ability for every human to understand happiness is why we are trying to manipulate the rules of society to pursue it.

Is freedom necessary for the pursuit of happiness? Yes! It is time for us, the people and the people en mass, to regain our need and want for the expression of Freedom and to seek out those who inhibit these expressions of Freedoms on foreign lands and create obstacles to their advancement.

Revolution starts with a whisper.

Within the anonymity of how you are expressing your support, it is time for your thoughts to join the revolution. War cannot bring peace or freedom, Revolution does.

good and thoughtful piece. thanks for sharing this with us. in my view.....freedom leads to choices, and choices lead to happiness. happiness in the moment, and aware of that moment, because the next moment is something different. those that feel bound by the availability of hoices, always seem to see happiness as a beyond, and not as a now. too much of the world is busy doing, and not spending enough time being. I have chosen to spend the rest of my life being, and happiness has followed me on that path.

tahoe58 said:

good and thoughtful piece. thanks for sharing this with us. in my view.....freedom leads to choices, and choices lead to happiness. happiness in the moment, and aware of that moment, because the next moment is something different. those that feel bound by the availability of hoices, always seem to see happiness as a beyond, and not as a now. too much of the world is busy doing, and not spending enough time being. I have chosen to spend the rest of my life being, and happiness has followed me on that path.

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That is very true, i must try to emphisize that point (choice) more definitively, choice is crucial to the idea of freedom. Have you read ... i forget the title now, but it is basically living in the now, as oppossed to wanting anything in the future. Be grateful of the moments you are living now, not dreaming of future happiness. Happiness is a choice this book continues to say, and sometimes it works, but i can't see myself choosing to be happy when my whole family just died. But if the kids left a huge mess in the kitchen trying to help, it is a choice to be happy and allow them to help you clean it up. Relativity is surely another key to happiness.

"There's no choice in freedom." - Mudvayne
"You're never going to see if you only want to be" - Marilyn Manson

hey UF - I realize I am making it sound all rather simple which really isn't fair, and understand that it is not simple by any stretch. My world went through hell and back in the last 5 years (I refer to it as what was....no longer is.....in the blink of an eye, the world in front of you does not in any way resemble what was experienced for the previous 15+ years), and I was forced to make a lot of difficult decisions or.....choose to die. In my case it has helped me more fully appreciate and comprehend the importance of the now. and how important a blend of the now and being with the doing is.

GS - thanks, there absolutely is the differential....and as I said above, it certainly is not black/white or clear cut.....it has many shades of grey. For me, those shades of grey are driven by the values that you hold dear and as non-negotiables. And it took me a while to figure out exactly what is was the was valuable. I followed many a poor path to end up where I did....hopefully I can make better decisions in the future.

At the depth of my circumstances in early 2005, I was sent a poem from a good friend of mine, that got me changing how I tihkn. The author is Oriah Mountaindreamer (Oriah) and the poem is "the invitation". that led to reading her four books...the Invitation, the Call, the Dance, and What we Ache for. I highly recommend them, though it does take some paradigm shifts (or at least it did for me) to reap the benefit of of this. I found it to be a great challenge, but one that has provided substantial rewards.

want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

Wonderfully put

Freedom is being comfortable in ANY situation, regardless of the circumstances.
Sounds rare, I know.
Also I think that sometimes all that is necessary to be free is the realization that you are not.