I don't know what freedom looks like for you, but I can imagine there are as many 'visions' of freedom as are hearts that long for them.
I sent Jean-P to hang the laundry outside, something he does (or is supposed to do) as part of his house-work. That is sacrilege in India! A boy! He is supposed to be pampered and brought up in haute sociétè as far as possible (A popular belief is children are a reincarnation of god(s))
Not just that he has to work at our home, but he has to do it well! I find it easier to send him out to finish his task rather than motivating him politely to do it. Ah! Are you beginning to see my vision of freedom? Illusive! So I go out to him and tell him, the usual way, that diligent hands make a man wealthy. A beggar might just preach that to me, I wouldn't care less. It's ingrained in the Indian mind from childhood starting with Early to bed, early to rise... the day we enter public school.
But then as I sat down to read (when else can I read but the hour and ten minutes he takes to hang a load out?!) something made me squirm. Yes one of those non-freedom lines!
...for all endurance and patience with joy...
Endurance? Patience? I can't do it! I JUST CAN'T DO IT! I'd rather hang the lundry myself! To go joyfully and tell J-P joyfully that he ought to do his work joyfully is too much for me! I was brought up the Indian way! We scream at children when they fail... (See? Scream and fail?!?!) Then crying, as my freedom was snatched from me, I looked at what the Wise One says
... May you be strengthened with all power... Now that's a little better, some power is always good and ALL power isn't such a bad idea! ...according to His glorious might... Wow! Not the might of a scream, not the power of performance, but ALL power vested in a gloriously mightily heavenly FATHER! That is beyond my comprehension!
To think that I don't have to live for performance or to make MY way the only way, that is freeing!
Freedom. Surely it's implications are bigger than boundary and time and emotions. Perhaps, among other things, it's a choice.
What makes you free?
I sent Jean-P to hang the laundry outside, something he does (or is supposed to do) as part of his house-work. That is sacrilege in India! A boy! He is supposed to be pampered and brought up in haute sociétè as far as possible (A popular belief is children are a reincarnation of god(s))
Not just that he has to work at our home, but he has to do it well! I find it easier to send him out to finish his task rather than motivating him politely to do it. Ah! Are you beginning to see my vision of freedom? Illusive! So I go out to him and tell him, the usual way, that diligent hands make a man wealthy. A beggar might just preach that to me, I wouldn't care less. It's ingrained in the Indian mind from childhood starting with Early to bed, early to rise... the day we enter public school.
But then as I sat down to read (when else can I read but the hour and ten minutes he takes to hang a load out?!) something made me squirm. Yes one of those non-freedom lines!
...for all endurance and patience with joy...
Endurance? Patience? I can't do it! I JUST CAN'T DO IT! I'd rather hang the lundry myself! To go joyfully and tell J-P joyfully that he ought to do his work joyfully is too much for me! I was brought up the Indian way! We scream at children when they fail... (See? Scream and fail?!?!) Then crying, as my freedom was snatched from me, I looked at what the Wise One says
... May you be strengthened with all power... Now that's a little better, some power is always good and ALL power isn't such a bad idea! ...according to His glorious might... Wow! Not the might of a scream, not the power of performance, but ALL power vested in a gloriously mightily heavenly FATHER! That is beyond my comprehension!
To think that I don't have to live for performance or to make MY way the only way, that is freeing!
Freedom. Surely it's implications are bigger than boundary and time and emotions. Perhaps, among other things, it's a choice.
What makes you free?
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