"Liberty" Paris, France.
Happy 4th of July, everyone. (Or 5th. Or 6th. Or whatever day this happens to be.)
Between hot dogs, corn on the cob, Budweisers and fireworks, take a minute or two to think about the meaning not just of liberty, but freedom as well. Those of us lucky enough to live in countries in which we have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the freedom to start businesses and be masters of our own destinies have it good. Don’t take it for granted. And don’t make the mistake of thinking that written laws grant you freedom. Written laws can be unwritten. Contracts can be amended. Things can change. Ask King George. Ask Louis XVI. Freedom is as fragile and precious and fleeting as life itself. Remember that freedom is not conditional. It is or isn’t. Though you may not be free 100% of the time, moments of freedom are absolute. Catching the sweet spot on a wave, the sun at your back, not a worry in your mind, that’s freedom. Racing full bore around the pyramids of Gizah, warm desert wind filling your lungs, the horse under you bucking with joy at finally being untethered and allowed to gallop, that’s freedom. Doing cartwheels in a field under endless skies, driving too fast with the top down, free-diving coral reefs, carving virgin snow at dawn with freshly sharpened skis: Freedom.
Going through passport control in the Atlanta airport, working a job you hate, letting someone bully you, coloring between the lines, checking the box, being in debt, none of these things are freedom. The land of the free isn’t if no one in it remembers what it means to truly be free.
Don’t mistake comfort and safety for freedom. Don’t let anyone convince you that freedom is something one man can grant another. It doesn’t work that way. Something granted can be just as easily taken back. Freedom, true freedom, is seized, not bought. No piece of paper, not even the Declaration of Independence or the US Constitution has the power to grant a single man freedom from another. Freedom lives in our hearts and in our actions. Words mean nothing. Words lie. (Beware the man who speaks of freedoms in the plural rather than freedom in the singular. The moment that happens, watch your back.)
So on this 4th of July 2010, take a moment to think about your liberty. Your freedom. What are you really celebrating today? How free are you really? Are you working for the right company? Answering to the right boss? Doing what you know in your heart what you should be doing with your life? Are you merely celebrating the idea of Freedom on the Fourth of July because you’re kind of supposed to, or is today an extension of July 3rd and a prologue to July 5th and 6th and 7th?
The Founding Fathers knew in their time that a nation of slaves would never rise to its fullest potential, and the same is true today: Complacency, the lure of safe choices and graying compromises, settling for anything less than freedom – the kind that fills your lungs and burns through your veins and makes you feel alive, truly alive – and letting other people decide how you should live your life are a threat to us as a nation as grave as global warming, religious hatred and self-righteous intolerance.
When the French gave Liberty to the US as a symbol of lasting friendship between our two countries, their hope was that she wouldn’t be forgotten, standing alone on an island, facing out to an empty, graying sea. They hoped that she would inspire every man woman and child to seek their own freedom, to fight for it, to love it with every last gasping breath above all else.
To those who have and do shed blood for freedom, who risk life and limb for it, whether soldiers or refugees, students or journalists, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, we owe more than hot dogs, beer and fireworks. We owe them no less than to fight for our own, every single day with all our souls, as if our very lives depended on it. And they do. Be careful not to celebrate what may not be yours to celebrate yet. What you may not have truly tasted in years.
So my advice to you is this: From now on, color outside the lines. Draw your own boxes. Work for people you want to work for. Make your destiny and every moment of your life your own. Don’t ever, ever ever let anyone get in the way of that. Do this and a year from today, we’ll all have a lot more to celebrate, hot dogs, beer, fireworks and all. 
Happy 4th of July, everyone.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Olivier Blanchard, Brand Lifestyle, Arizona Social Media and others. Arizona Social Media said: Brand Builder – Vive la Republique. Vive la Liberte. http://bit.ly/aCoAO5 RT Please [...]
Absolutely wonderful post, especially the comments on “work for people you want to work for”. So many people strive from an early age towards a particular career, end up in a job they’ve been aiming for then realise they hate it, and think that because it has been their goal, they’d best stick with it. That’s not what freedom is about, and even though in the USA they are celebrating freedom from us here in the UK, it’s important to remember that freedom in ones career is universal.
Yep. A hard lesson to learn, and one I am no stranger to myself.
One of the tensions around this country/holiday is that there were so many competing mindsets among the Founding Fathers. Ultimately, I think they did the best they thought they could, but some issues would continue to bind freedom until the Civil War, until the Civil Rights movement, until this morning and beyond. Anyway, wonderful post that puts into perspective what freedom can be about, and about what it’s not. Thanks for this, Olivier.
Thanks, Rick. Yeah, the Founding Fathers had a tough job. They tried to build a set of laws around liberty from oppression… which is in and of itself a contradiction of sorts. Governments have laws, which means that freedom must have limits set upon it. The Constitution is an imperfect document. Always has been. What they tried to create was a fragile, flawed thing that needs constant protection, care and vigilance from those who would twist it to their advantage.
When people argue about petty politics, about who’s right or wrong, and who should have power over the destiny of others, I cringe. The right to argue and complain isn’t freedom.
It’s funny to me when I run into people who hold the Constitution as a sacred document. Truth is, it is as fragile and powerless as the paper it was written on. It is no more than a valiant effort by visionary men to try and codify an idea they couldn’t otherwise convey to the people of the nation they wanted to create. The faint blueprint of a dream put to paper in hope others would adopt its spirit as their own. It’s the expression of an ideal, nothing more. It certainly isn’t a kind of extension of the Ten Commandments, as many people seem to believe.
Freedom is our natural state of being, without pieces of paper – no matter how well painted, without walls, without fences, without laws, without petty conflicts and without having to deal with the tantrums of small frightened souls who sometimes fleetingly call themselves our betters.
Cheers, Rick.
Spot on – think that’s why you’re my favorite Frenchman. Second favorite behind Jerry Lewis. No, wait… nevermind.
Cheers.
Semper Fi!
That is all….
That’s all we really need, isn’t it.
That post is a really great reminder and motivator, especially that it’s down to us, the individual,to ensure freedom can prosper, that we have a right and a responsibility and that every single action will make a difference as long as it increases choice. Fortune favors the bold. Thanks for sharing.