FROM LETTERS ON FREEDOM - LETTER 3
Freedom is a paradoxical thing. It takes so much work to attain it only to realize that you've always had it. This translates easily to spending a lifetime looking for happiness only to realize that you were happy, or at least could have been happy, exactly where you were.
There is an entire culture, and an industry to boot, based on keeping you busy because it has you thinking that there is something wrong with you, or the things you do, or the things you have, or the things you don't have - all in all - there is something wrong with you and you need to do something about it. Now!
It's gotten worse in the past two decades, at least that is my impression. I like to say that you can't even have a butterfly fart in Madagascar without a global movement starting about it (I've read about the flatulent butterflies in Madagascar, it's a propulsion thing, trust me). You can't even buy a stick of gum (I know that nobody sells sticks of gum anymore, I just like to say "stick of gum") without some "call to action" statement attached to it.
The world, as it operates right now seems to be awash with problems and misery. And it's you - superhero number 6,013,275 that has been given a mission to solve all of it. Just like the 6,013,274 superheroes before you that have the same job right now.
I've read so many texts - philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis - and it's nothing short of depressing to realize that for a century of psychoanalysis and psychology, for millennia of philosophy - people have been extremely efficient in describing what's wrong with the human condition. Even the term "human condition" sounds like a disease.And then some will suggest very precise things that you need to do right now to fix your problem and some will just give you a lot to think about and by the time you're done thinking about it you'll realize that you have no solution at all.I don't want to join that club and I have a different suggestion: Would it be so bad for everything to be just fine, to have no problems, to have no worries, no fears - just for one single moment?
Tomorrow, you can go and buy the next in the series of smartphones that can run a small space station, and have Botox injected into your nose to straighten out your nose hair, and apply for all those 17 jobs that are so much better than the one you have now (just like this one is so much better than the 17 you've had before, but here you are looking for a new job again). Tomorrow. You can start that new training regime that will make you lose the 767 grams your doctors said you needed to lose to get those 0.15 points off of your BMI. Tomorrow. You can put your superhero outfit on tomorrow, have the damn thing dry-cleaned for once. Tomorrow.
My grandfather used to tell me, when I was being lazy: "Cras, cras, semper cras et sic dilabitur vita!". First of all, what kind of grandfather speaks Latin to a little kid? A good one, he was a great guy. Secondly, what kind of grandfather remembers the Latin proverb incorrectly (it's aetas instead of vita, but it means the same thing, little did he know that I'd end up studying Latin in school too - hah!). Well, he was pretty old, so he's forgiven. This also tells me that the old Romans had a work ethic similar to our modern one. Go and do something! Now!
But just a moment, grandpa, just one second, just one millisecond, okay?
How about if everything was fine - just for now, just for a little bit?
In this moment, just now, just for a little while, what if I could just - live?
I suppose I have to write just one more sentence to not end this with a question mark.
How liberating it is to know that the only person standing in your way - is you!
How beautiful life is when you just get out of your own way and let life happen!
How beautiful it is to...
Just live!
