Selectively Juggling

Freedom? Freedoms? Personal? Collective? Social? Political? – as you can see this is a highly nuanced topic, which in all honesty could take months to adequately address. Ok, so I’m not going to dedicate my next few months writing about freedom, and what it means to me. Why? because I have the agency and power to choose not to. So, in effect on a basic, almost cellular level freedom means having the unhindered option to make informed choices, personally, socially and politically. To me freedom entails the ability to exercise my personal voice, and make choices about things that impact my life. I am free to think, feel, express and create without fear of retribution or oppression. Freedom is a strange, and often challenging concept- I find it hard to reconcile the fact that regardless of our shared humanity, we do not have equal freedoms. Can I really be free, if others are oppressed?

Freedom to me is also about ‘unlearning’, unhooking, detaching oneself from the indoctrination of childhood. It’s about being free to create my own narrative, paint life using my own carefully crafted palette. It’s not only about writing my own life story, but more importantly choosing how I frame that narrative, the language I use, my unique punctuation and story arc. Freedom, is about living life with my internal flame alight, not fearful of others trying to snuff it out, simply to fill their own narratives. Freedom is both explicit and implicit. It is both socially constructed, but individually driven and experienced.