It is
indeed true that the utopic and perfect definition of freedom, the kind of
freedom which allows one to do as one pleases, anywhere one pleases, anyhow one
pleases and in complete disregard of anything or anyone else is a far cry from
reality, a pipe dream, a delusion, an illusion as real as wishing to live
forever. Even in the freest of societies or spaces inhabited and co-inhabited
by mankind, the basic expectation is that our freedoms hinge on a moral and
human onus and lore predicated on the fact that in exercising our freedoms we
cannot deny others the right to the same. In a weird sense any restriction to
freedom is a contradiction to the inherent purity of a free concept itself.
Nonetheless as practically as possible we can to a certain extent be free.
Today
we live in a world so full of noise and voices clamoring for influence and
attention, voices beckoning us to be like Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Hillary
Clinton, Thomas Sankara, Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr, Bobby Kennedy,
John Kennedy; cultural voices pulling us to hip hop and towards the fitness of Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger, pushing us to seek the handsomeness of
Denzel Washington, the beauty of Marilyn Monroe, the sophistication of Angelina Jolie, the cool suaveness of George
Clooney, the fame of Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Bob Marley, the idiosyncrasies of lady Gaga, the swag of Jay Z, Beyonce, Lil Wayne and Rihanna; the grace of mother
Theresa, the piety of the pope, the feminism of Emma Watson, the riches of Bill Gates, the genius of Einstein, the poetic prowess of Maya Angelou, the love of Christ, the vanity of extremists; voices
insisting that we should be this or that; voices entreating us not to indulge in
that or that; religious voices dragging from many directions; tribal voices
screaming for a place under the sun; voices shaping societal mores and the
expectation that one must be a certain size and shape, that one must be a
certain figure eight, shaped like a guitar, that one must transform their
abdominal folds into six and four and eight and one packs or chocolate bars;
voices which encourage us to get into this or that job because of its financial
remuneration; voices rejecting us; voices accepting us; voices which demand
marriage of us at all cost; voices commanding us to all be firsts, voices which
demand of us to get into this or that profession; voices which have bullied and
cowered what and who most people are into a place and space of perpetual
hibernation and a constant quest for something conforming, accepted, boring, and
suffocating, something totally alien to who they really are. Today we live in a world where people can show
up at the hospital/clinic and request a Kim Kardashian butt, Jenifer Lopez
youth, Tina Turner legs and any anatomical manipulation conceivable, a reality
which only some years back, in this same century was impossibility. As
technological advancement expands the borders and boundaries of human
possibility, without proper care it steals by the very same token something quintessential about the authenticity of humanity and it is increasingly demanding ceaseless doses
of extraordinary courage to be our authentic selves. More than ever before
mankind needs to find a way to quiet the noise enough to hear and heed that
still small voice with the power to introduce and reintroduce us to our real
selves.
Central
to human freedom is a society which allows human beings to be themselves. There
is a reason why the rainbow in the collective beauty of all its colors eclipses
and dwarfs the individual beauty of the colors constituting the rainbow as
stand alones. Will you find and tap the courage to be yourself, to pursue those
dreams you were born to pursue, reach those heights you were born to reach,
touch those lives you are here to touch, learn all those lessons you are here
to learn through experiences both ugly and great and countless interactions
with fellow man? Will you find the strength to keep growing and to be that
person only you can be, to be the best you are and can possibly be, focused like
a laser beam on maximizing your strengths and minimizing your weaknesses. You
must never apologize for doing so. That is the one way by which our collective
humanity is celebrated and advanced and God is glorified.
© September 2014 afesehngwaHilary
