Freedom

There's been some discussion in the last day or so on some of the lists that I take part in about freedom and whether or not, entering into this kind of power exchange relationship means that one must give up all of one's freedoms -- or some of them -- or just how much...

And the short answer, of course, is "yes, but it is a choice so to do."

Then there are those who have come back, mostly from the TOP side of the equation, to say that it isn't really a "giving up" so much as it is a trading of one perceived good for another. I suppose there's some validity in that perspective, especially if you are the one on the TOP side of the equation. I think that perspective is disingenuous at best.

There most certainly is a very real sort of "giving up" of real freedoms if one is going to do this in any concrete sense. I can't see how I can be "His" and still do everything MY way. The simple fact is that if I were living on my own and by myself, I'd do a lot of things differently. I live my life by His rules and in His patterns and by His lights BECAUSE I am His, and in doing that, I've had to let go of plenty of big and small things that were my ways of living and doing. Some of those relinquishments were easy. Others were and are hard.

Feels to me that there is something deeper in this though. That beyond the daily, mundane, tangibles, there is a spirit question about what it means to be truly free -- or truly captive maybe...

When I type in a query about what the word "freedom" means, the search engine returns an interesting array of definitions:

the condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints


exemption: immunity from an obligation or duty


Being allowed to sing in my bath as loudly as will not interfere with my neighbour's right to sing a different tune in his. [Stoppard]


n. An emotional experience of being unrestricted, unlimited, uncontrolled and unrestricted by thought processes which would otherwise create internal or external constrictions in thinking, acting or results - it is the results of our being love, celebrating life, expanding into possibilities rather than being in fear, collapsing or moving away form life, as prisoners of our own intellect.


Voluntary, in the absence of coercion


". . . that which has its centre in itself . . . . exists in and with itself . . . . self-contained existence . . . . I am free . . . when my existence depends upon myself."


The subjective experience of having a rich and realistic set of alternative actions that one may undertake.

As I work my way down through that list, there are some simple observations to be made: I don't have the power to act, speak, or think without externally imposed restraints, nor am I immune from a wide array of obligations and duties. I sing in the shower, when the mood strikes, and while the neighbors have been known to complain (I suspect) to the condominium association about a number of things, that does not seem to have been one of them. My life does not have its center in itself, does not exist in and with itself and I am, possibly for the first time ever, certain that my existence does not depend entirely upon myself.

It is in the middle of the list that I find that the definitions of freedom converge with my experiences of "freedom" in slavery -- in being free while being owned. Something about having "given up" the right to have everything my own way has resulted in almost exactly that emotional experience of being unrestricted and unlimited in my thinking. It has opened me to possibilities that were never apparent to me when I was "free." Indeed, the act of surrendering control to One who is meant for me has let me become "love" and celebrate life without the continual shadow of fearfulness that was my reality before.

It is true that I have limited alternatives from which I can choose. Looking in from the outside, an observer might see a life that is tightly bound and constrained too tightly to soar to the heights. Spirit, however does not experience the same boundaries that we, who live in corporal bodies, understand. In finding my way into a small "heart's home" I have set my life free. This is the paradox of what is gained in the giving up of slavery.

swan