The Handicap of Freedom
I’ve always said that just because we have the freedom to do something, it does not necessarily mean we should. Freedom is a huge, ginormous, responsibility. One we have taken for granted and one, that at least in this present time, needs to be redefined and taken seriously.
FRUSTRATION…ANGER…DISAPPOINTMENT…BITTERNESS We are all experiencing a rainbow of emotions having our freedoms curtailed.
We are all accustomed to running out of eggs, jumping in the car, and running to our grocer or 7/11, grabbing them, and checking out after saying hello to a couple of friends or maybe hugging or shaking hands with someone we have not seen in a while. We might even stop and buy a lottery ticket along the way. We’ve never had to be concerned about touching the handle of a door, running our credit card through a machine, or taking paper money or coins as change. If it’s hot and we live near a beach, we go hang out with friends. We attend sporting events and cheer for our kid’s soccer team or our preferred professional athletes. We share a beer and toast a home run, slopping beer into each other’s cups or handing out oranges to sweaty happy kids with glee. We jump on an airplane to visit a place or people we love. We are all accustomed to doing pretty much whatever we want to do, regardless of our economic reality. Freedom is something that we have all had, even as we each dealt with our own limitations.
But as a whole? We HATE being told we CAN’T.
Freedom is a handicap for all of us right now. We ache for the truly “good ole days” that existed only five months ago. We would all be thrilled to have the things we worried about then as our main concern. But we can’t go back. We can’t change anything about what is happening right now, except for one thing.
We can surrender our idea of freedom, the freedoms we have experienced before COVID-19 landed on our shores and adapt a new mindset.
We have many freedoms at our disposal. We can binge watch TV without guilt. We can call and have some real conversations with the people we love. If we live with others, we can cook together, and play games together, and inspire each other to stay connected via technology with other friends and family. For those alone, we now have the freedom of time to phone them. We can write the book, or create a new exercise program, or start a project we have long delayed. We don’t need a lot of space for yoga or to run in place. There is always gardening, whether it’s a ceramic pot or a yard, where communing with nature might bring us peace. There’s always old-fashioned freedoms, like writing a letter.
What we have now, that most of us have not had in years, is time. The precious commodity that most of us have been complaining was in short supply.
As possible, watch what your mind tries to convince you to do, to think, to believe. Listen to factual news and as possible spend some of that precious time considering how deeply, irrevocably, and potentially life-saving your decisions are right now. This is not a political issue. This is not a matter of being right or wrong. This is a matter of life and death. So don’t buy into conspiracies about things that don’t matter.
And recognize what COVID-19 really is. It’s an organic virus, named by scientists in a way that allows them to track it for years to come. To find out exactly what that was, I referred to the WHO (World Health Organization) and this is what my research revealed.
“Viruses are named based on their genetic structure to facilitate the development of diagnostic tests, vaccines and medicines. Virologists and the wider scientific community do this work, so viruses are named by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).”
Given that information, COVID-19 can be broken down as follows. CO (corona) VI (virus) and 19 for the year it showed up. Its name has nothing to do with anything other than that. Scientists are specific and factual. It is the very reason we can trust them.
We have spent the past number of years mistrusting authorities that can and do keep us safe. This is a “game over” moment. In times such as these we need those authorities to protect the freedoms so that one day we might return to the very freedom of movement all of us treasure.
So please, use your freedom wisely and recognize your frustration, anger, bitterness, and/or deep disappointment may be attached to the idea of what freedom should be, not to the true spirit that is ours to enjoy.