mandag, maj 05, 2008

Happy Liberation Day

Today marks the anniversary of the end of Nazi occupation of Denmark. Liberation Day. Freedom Day. In this case, freedom from occupation, but also a day to ponder other freedoms, other liberations. What is freedom? What do we need to be free from?

Recently, I find myself battling old demons in new guises. I know that sounds veiled and mysterious, but it really isn't. Just that it's too mundane to really make sense put into words in a public forum. I am battling (and winning, I believe, but it'll be a long battle) with questions like, what is motherhood? What does it mean to be a good mother? What does it mean to have balance in life? What counts as a relationship? And the answer to all of these, to some extent, is freedom. Being liberated from the necessity of finding a 'right' answer to a big question (or any question). Being liberated from the necessity of finding a permanent answer to questions. Being mindful of both questions and answers, yet aware that both of these constructs are tenuous at best.

What, for you, is freedom, liberation? What battles are you waging, and how do you think the fight is going?

3 kommentarer:

Devil Mood sagde ...

"Being liberated from the necessity of finding a permanent answer to questions" - that's a very interesting question!

It's interesting that you find yourself having philosophical discussion with yourself (I don't find them very mundane) when I imagine you are surrounded by very immediate and important practical issues at the moment.

I'm sure that will be a long battle indeed so don't waste your energy in the first duels ;)
As for me, I think I need to feel free about most things but when you don't feel free within yourself it's hard to really be free at all.

Anonym sagde ...

War on Humanity: vote for whoever is likeliest to use my nation's massive nuclear arsenal or merely refrain from voting and let the easily-hijackable voting machines do the work for me? check. all i gotta do now is wait.

War on myself: obliterated large chunks of my own past from my awareness, replaced them with a multiple-choice mad-lib of wacky, partially-true personal anecdotes to establish new identity. Mission accomplished. put some rum in the Jolt Cola and start partying.

Freedom, to my people (SubGenius people, human-yeti hybrid people, slacker people), is not necessarily about societal permissiveness towards a wide variety of lifestyles, although we certainly enjoy that. It's about the freedom to fail. the freedom to NOT be perfect, the freedom to MAKE mistakes and messes, to LIVE that trainwreck of a life if that's what you want to do. it is freedom from other people's definitions of freedom.

for many, the first step towards it is a lateral move, a sideways jump out of the hamsterwheel of pressure-to-succeed, always struggling to do MORE than what has already been done, always being expected to do more than what is expected. The first freedom is the freedom to say NO to this, the freedom of the extended middle finger.

Freedom is taking YOUR LIFE into your own hands so you can SPEND IT the way you WANT rather than putting it in someone else's pocket.

Anonym sagde ...

Besides the literalness of being free in a free country, which I appreciate beyond belief to no end, freedom for me would be to be free of the mental garbage I sort through every day…which is similar what you wrote, to be free of the internal pressing to find a right answer… I have my own set of demons with their nasty questions, mainly and overall, “What the heck am I doing here on this planet???”