The most important kind of freedom

"The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are.  You trade in your reality for a role.  You trade in your sense for an act.  You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask.  There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level.  It's got to happen inside first." ~ Jim Morrison

I saw this quote tonight while going through facebook, and as I was scrolling through the comments, one stuck me as a person who totally missed the whole thing.  He said "Words from a acid head....great speech look were he is today, 6 feet under. Lol"  I was taken back to say the least.  The other comments were how poetic he was, how much he was ahead of his time, and then, some yuppie type who doesn't know anything about what he was talking about, makes a comment like that.  Wow.  I feel bad for that man for a few reasons.  The first is because he is just that uninformed about what Jim Morrison was all about, what he stood for, what he did, and the reasons behind it.  True, he did a lot of drugs.  And yes, he is dead.  Part of the 27 club in fact.  He is buried in Paris, the city of love.  He was so much more than what we, even with our technology and forethought and everything that we have now, he was way far ahead of us even now. 

Freedom, we seem to take the for granted in this country.  But, what kind of freedom do we really have here?  I have the freedom of speech, given to me by the Bill of Rights.  Meaning, I can say what I wish and not have the fear of being taken prisoner and sent to, say, Siberia for saying anything.  Or is it deeper than that.  I can't make threats, and, for me personally, I can't be mean to others for the sake of being mean.  I like this freedom, it gives me the opportunity to write this blog, to speak out against what I think is wrong, and yet, I like to be able to provide a solution for what I don't agree with.  Sometimes my solution is not exactly, politically correct, so if I run for president next year, then I will have lots of explaining to do, but, today, I don't care if I offend.  I try not to, but, it happens, and when it does, I just tell you, that my opinion, if you don't like it, that is OK, we don't have to agree with everything. 

I have the freedom to practice any religion that I chose in this country, and I know that not all places on our planet are like that, and so I am grateful for that, and yet, I find it disturbing that so many others use their religion to persecute others for their beliefs.  That doesn't make sense to me, but, many things don't.  I can chose to live my life the way it fits for me, and if I make choices that don't agree with say, The Church, then, I'm going to hell and I can't live like that because it doesn't agree with a book.  Yup, that's freedom all right. 

I have the freedom to own and carry a firearm.  Yet, when people do, others look at them like they have magically grown another head.  You hear, what do you need to carry that for?  What are you afraid of?  And I like what Thomas says when he's asked... Because I can, because it's my RIGHT, and I'm not afraid of anything. 

I have the freedom to express myself how I like, unless I want to get a job in many places because, well, they don't' think that respectable people have nose rings, or tattoos.  Not really free there, but, whatever. 

And then free from myself.  What is it about self realization that makes us free?  What is about self realization that makes so many want to get there, and yet, they continue to search and never find the answer.  The answer has always and will always be only one place that many are so scared to look.  It lies within you.  And what I don't understand all of the time, is why is our minds such a scary place?  I wonder often, that, do people listen to things to drowned out their thoughts because deep down, they wish harm to others and then they think that makes them a bad person, so they block that out.  I like to hear my thoughts.  In fact, I like to focus to see what's really going on in my head, and to do that, I have to be outside.  In the sunlight.  I don't know why, but, for me, that's when I hear myself the best.  And some of the things that I think about are not how to improve upon myself, it's more about, what is next in life, what is coming up, where do I see myself going with this.  Sometimes I wonder about other people, but, I don't' see that as being very effective for me, because, I can't change other people, all I can do is be the change that I want to see in the world. 

So the question to you now becomes, are you free, really truly free?