Freedom's Just Another Word

A week has passed since last post, and it's been a week of regaining bearings, catching up, and relaxing a bit, as well. The major journeys of this time apart are now past, and the next 6-7 weeks are intended to be a time to think, read, and put the many pieces of this jigsaw into some sort of order.

We all, of course, celebrated the 4th of July--Independence Day--and I had at least in the corner of my mind the delightful Bobby who chided us outside the parliament building "if you all hadn't been so uppity there in Boston, YOU could be part of this, too!"

I found myself thinking about St. Augustine, and his understanding of the truest form of human freedom being nothing more or less than conforming our human will to the will of God. That, of course, is about the opposite of what I suspect the common definition of freedom was among those who celebrated the 4th (and the 2nd, and the 3rd, and the 5th!) thinking that freedom 1. Is my ability to do what I want, and 2. If God has any place in this, it should be in shifting the world around so that what I want is a little easier for me.

Am I being to cynical, or has freedom become, in Janice Joplin's words, "nothing left to lose"? A hammer with which we can shape the world to the form of our choosing? It's Florence, and the Medicis who come to mind now, and the amazing collections of the Vatican Museum. So much of what is now for us a true treasure of art was assembled in order to assert a particular order on the world around them. Freedom--if it was an important word at the time--was the ability to control the forces in the world in your favor.

But what might it mean if our deepest and fullest freedom comes when we give ourselves over to God and find ourselves in a community of shared value in which each person's first responsibility is to look after the other?

The thought that crossed my mind as I watched skyrockets burst in the night sky is that this community of shared value would really be a perpetual motion machine--no fuse to light, no time at which the last shell would burst and we'd all go home. If I'm concerned for my neighbor, and my neighbor's concerned for me, there's ALWAYS a light on! And if, as Jesus insisted, my neighbor is only and always the one whose need is present to me, then this community of shared value (done correctly) is always growing, moving, shifting its focus beyond itself, as well. Its boundaries cannot be fixed by doctrines, or theological positions, but only by the OTHER, and specifically, that Other's deep need.

Alexis de Tocquville said that the thing that made this nation unique (this was back in the 1800's) was its combination of fierce individualism and deeply held civic responsibility. Many commentators on de Tocquville in the past ten years have noted that the fierce individualism is doing just fine, but we seem to be losing that sense of civic responsibility. I still see enough signs of hope and promise to be skeptical of their conclusions, but I see what makes them wonder. Freedom, unbounded, as Augustine understood, is just another form of slavery, and far more destructive, because you end up a slave to your own shifting appetites and desires.

So, happy 4th! Let freedom RING!