“Jane, be still; don't struggle so like a wild, frantic bird, that is rending its own plumage in its desperation." "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being, with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you.”
- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Freedom is powerful. It is exhilarating. It imparts the powerful feeling that you can do anything you wish to!
The moment you step off a plane into a brand new city, no one telling you how to live life,where no one knows you and where you can recreate your own existence. When you have the freedom of life.
The feeling of looking at your credit card statement and seeing a big fat zero. The feeling of submitting that last paper, knowing you're done with school. The moment when you step off the stage after a big speech/presentation. When you have the freedom from burden.
The moment you step off a plane into a brand new city, no one telling you how to live life,where no one knows you and where you can recreate your own existence. When you have the freedom of life.
The feeling of looking at your credit card statement and seeing a big fat zero. The feeling of submitting that last paper, knowing you're done with school. The moment when you step off the stage after a big speech/presentation. When you have the freedom from burden.
The freedom of hopping into your bicycle and biking anywhere you want to. The ability to choose the place you want to eat. The freedom of dropping all obligations and hopping off to a favourite destination with a close person. When you have the freedom of taking control.
It feels nice when I can exercise the right to control my life, where I can have my say in the grand scheme of things, where I have the freedom to pursue life. In a pensive mood, I realise that I don't always value this freedom. It is indeed a gift that is denied to thousands : So many women who are suppressed, tortured and denied the freedom to express an opinion , so many children who are forced into labour at a tender age when they should be hopping away merrily under bright skies. We have a friend in her 20s as a part-time helper and she is about to be married off to a man she has never talked to. She awaits her impending doom, a life in the confines of a family she doesn't know. She wants to learn, earn and make a mark in this world. But she cannot, merely because of the destiny of fate into which she was born into.
So what happens when one searches for freedom but can't quite reach it? Escape. The feel-good, sometimes-futile temporary replacement for freedom. Just like my maid indulges in guilty pleasures of soap opera watching, just like the small tea-boy secretly collects newspapers in tea-shops to read at night, just like young bored working professionals escape into the internet rabbit hole in the hopes of intellectual fulfilment and world knowledge.
It's a long walk to true freedom. Until then, escapism offers bootstrap solutions!
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