Freedom
Tormented Soul
A few friends described me good-naturedly as a "thinker but tormented soul" due to my blog and the articles perhaps. They described it in different ways but it pointed to this - "thinker but tormented soul". To put it more abrasively, it could even mean "disturbed". Maybe it has got to do with writing, why I had chosen to write or the things I wrote may be the style. One went even further to say that a happy person can't write like that. Do you agree and think so? I am worried.
Let me see how I can learn to conduct a poll, may be set up poll station where people can vote. If I haven't set it up, you can always leave comments at the end of the article or just put it on my tag board at the right side. Do not be unduly concerned. I went for health screening but they don't do mental health. Yet tell me if you know anyone who is 100% sane? None. It's a percentage things 50/50, 30/70, 80/20, 60/40, etc. You and I are really somewhat insane to a certain degree.
When I write I can't just skim the surface. That is for skaters or skiers. I have to remove everything except my clothes and go skinny dipping. If you were to write with a certain consciousness, your emotions and thoughts cannot flow. Only a subconscious mind can bring out something different. Suffice to say a singer who sings with lots of emotion comes across different to the audience. She or he appears to be singing to you individually even though there is a big group listening and watching. The same thing happens to a good speaker. They have an aura, a certain charisma and even conviction. Be soulful they would say. Deranged people also have their own convictions. Perhaps the trick is to go almost mad but don't go mad until one day you can't pull the brakes in time and go entirely nuts when you cross the line. In short, writing must be no-holds-barred and with absolute and abundant freedom. I will dedicate an article on tormented souls separately.
Galaxy And The Cosmos
Like good music, you submerged yourself and let your subconscious, emotions and thoughts flow. That is the time you achieve Freedom. Free from all hang ups, fixed thinking, etc. You can't let a fixed mindset hinder you. Take a look at Kitaro with "Caravansary" and you will understand what I mean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qBui-pG2U4, think of the Silk Road and entire cities and cultures. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ulc51ZOGQk, don't you love them all? What about "Dance of Sarasvati" -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvEWkj08UcI . By watching this video of the galaxy, it reminds me of last week's documentary on Discovery about the Galaxy lightyears away. The Galaxy is made up of stars, dust and gases and stars are huge and bigger than earth and they are constantly darting in an orbit. Imagine thousands and millions of them doing that all at the same time. Then they have a black matter that can goes through most things but light can't get through it but only around it and it is this black matter stuffs that held up everything together it their places without which stars orbiting within the a galaxy with the gases and dust will definitely be on a collision course with another galaxy and this as you can imagine will cause a unthinkable chaos in the cosmos. Is this science or madness. Why should we care or bother? The moon alone can change tides and affect your mood and you don't are about the universe?
Am I happy? Sometimes. When I say I am mostly happy you may not believe me or you may think I'm a simpleton. When the planet and the stars are in a straight line, I'll be crazy. There are people who look at stars for their happiness. Horoscope, zodiac, etc. Well they are linked to the Cosmos they would say. To me, there is such a thing as "Universal Love".
Freedom
When I write I set out to liberate and give you freedom. To liberate and give freedom to the soul and to nourish the mind. I can't save the world nor can I fixed you up. Only you have the power to focus and act on it. I want you to have that power and put power in your hands.
Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires. Have you ever noticed caged birds? The worst are those at pet shops where they are overcrowded, unwashed, uncleaned and probably underfed. Those that were bought were more fortunate as they are better taken care of, cleaned up, well-fed and no wonder they could sing quite a bit and maybe go on to win a few competitions. That's life isn't it. A bird's life. What about those that can't sing or don't sing as well? At the end of the day, even the best singing birds are "caged birds" like a mistress. If you were a bird, how would you feel? Do you prefer to be a singing caged bird or a bird that is free? Free to roam, to do what it likes, sing when it feels like singing and to find its own food. There are people who would buy caged birds and free them on some occasions as it is a good act or deed of giving freedom but are we giving ourselves freedom.
Bird In A Cage
Bird or man, living in cages or encaged behind bars gives a feeling of an imprisoned existence. Quite often in life, such cages may not even be physical ones. We may compartmentalised it in our minds as a result of norms, trends, traditions, social patterns, taboos, superstitions, rules and regulations, customs, politics, religions, fears so that we draw boundaries around ourselves telling ourselves what we can and what we cannot do. Killing, stealing and cheating are things that Captain Obvious will know we cannot do but many of us continue to allow such invisible barriers and forces to control our lives and in decision making such that it can become very stressful even when doing simple things so some of us become miserable. We go on to set so many limits to prevent ourselves from having more happy moments or experiencing a carefree life that it totally unfettered. Some parents insist that their children must be doctors or lawyers against their wishes or dictate who they should marry.
If you were to be a bird, these limits you set yourself becomes the cage. If your cage has two bars across, you may skip and jump up and down two bars, hang upside down at the top of the cage or jump from side to side. Your movements, thinking, feelings are different from a free-roaming bird which has no limitations or restrictions. Of course, it may get eaten by lizards or bigger birds but birds especially migratory types have been known to fly across long distances. They can perched themselves on different trees and shit on different cars regardless of whether the cars are BMWs, Toyotas or Hyundais rather than doing it in the same old cage.
Of course I am not talking about totally uninhibited freedom such as walking around naked. For the human species, freedom must come with responsibility. You have the freedom to party, then do have the responsibility to clean up after the party. You have the freedom to drink some alcohol but don't go around killing or hurting others on the roads. You have the freedom to talk but that doesn't give you the licence to kill as a tongue six inches long can kill man six feet tall. Only one person does - Bond, James Bond. Having some power does not mean you can take things in your own hands.
George Michael - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diYAc7gB-0A&ob=av2e
Braveheart: Scotland The Brave was William Wallace (Mel Gibson). What a warrior! You must watch the part where they were about to chop his head and asked for his last words and to denounce freedom but he shouted defiantly to his people: "FREEDOM!"
Braveheart: Scotland The Brave was William Wallace (Mel Gibson). What a warrior! You must watch the part where they were about to chop his head and asked for his last words and to denounce freedom but he shouted defiantly to his people: "FREEDOM!"
How important is freedom? Listen to this Freedom speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLrrBs8JBQo&feature=related
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lBNIiCMu7I
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them of those personal goods that are subject to the mutation of time. - Bertrand Russell.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them of those personal goods that are subject to the mutation of time. - Bertrand Russell.
It is preoccupation of possessions more than anything else that prevents us from living freely and nobly. - Bertrand Russell.
Freedom takes courage to achieve. Some countries criticize others for one thing or another but if they were to look at themselves hard enough they are not much better. What I'm dealing with is freedom at the personal level. Where does your freedom come from if you were bogged down all the time. When you have to do certain things in a certain way because this is what others expect of you and you are perpetually chained up by any one thing or more. Freedom is when you are the real you, when you don't pretend to be someone else. There is no restraint, it is an exemption from external control or intervention. There is no bondage. Where there is no obligation and there is frankness in manner or speech. The power to exercise choice without constraint. You are not influence by pressure, bias or favours.
Albert Einstein - Everything that is great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labour in freedom.
We hold in our hands, the most precious gifts of all: Freedom. The freedom to express our art and our love. The freedom to be who we want to be. We are not going to give that freedom away and no one shall take it from us. - Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider.
Franklin Roosevelt - In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed. It must be achieved.
George Bernard Shaw - Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
Lawana Blackwell - Patterning your life around other's opinions is nothing more than slavery.
Malcolm X - Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it. You can't separate peace from freedom. No one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
Soren Kierkegaard - People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought that they seldom use.
Fly Robin Fly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM72iWami9M
William Hazlitt - The love of liberty is the love of others. The love of power is the love of ourselves.
There is a tendency in humans to conform to a larger group, practice or beliefs. When you conform to every whims and fancies of others there is no freedom. You are merely existing and trying to live to other's expectations. You have a mind. Get a life. The opposite of freedom is bondage. When you in bondage in any way, you cannot walk a free man. Your footsteps and your heart are heavy, your muscles are worn out and the body is weary. Your mind is clouded. To have total freedom is to possess this ability and courage to have shed them all regardless of prejudices, biaises, race, language or religion, to belong to a clique, superstition, taboos, to live to other's expectations of who you are or what you should be. Fly freely like a bird. Be free.
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