What does freedom really feel like?
On this day of celebration in the U.S., it is too easy to take for granted the freedoms we enjoy here. Let’s pause–amidst the rambunctious grilling of soy burgers and the shopping for extra long jersey knit sky blue dorm room sheets–to list the freedoms we have.
Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Fold up that list and put it in your wallet. Pull it out the next time you get angry at the radio talk show host who’s talking trash because he disagrees with you. Freedom means opening the space for him, just as wide as the space you open for yourself. I wonder what we could create in the world if we purposefully engaged in dialogue whose intention is co-created, generative action rather than dialogue whose intention is to negate the other person, the other Party, the other religion or sexual orientation or nation?
Freedom is something Asheville resident Glen Edward Chapman knows something about, having spent 14 years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. Getting out of jail recently after all that time? That’s freedom. You and I? We have it every day, but we just don’t know it. We need to.
The fourth of July always reminds me of a favorite quote from a favorite book, Art & Fear: "The American Revolution was not financed with matching grants from the Crown." If we want freedom, we must act. Great change doesn’t come with official endorsement. It also doesn’t come from a negative intention, but from a generative one.
(Need help figuring out how to display your flag?)
