Yeah, I know what you are thinking. Retired military, still "serving" in some capacity, I am sure he is going to write about waving-the-flag-type freedom. Nope.
I had a guy last week who quit suddenly and gave me just four days notice (by the way it is a serious pain in the a*s to get a person back to the states in four days in case you were wondering.) Nice guy, great worker, solid reputation. There are some extenuating circumstances that I won't get into, since it would violate his privacy but suffice it to say, it was not work related. He told me he is not sure where he is going to end up, and he is going to decide each day what he will do. Some comments that were made by my people led me to this post.
The man was single, no kids, no house, no car, dog, cat, bird, whatever. Everyone made statements, all in the same vein, saying he is "free," and can do what he wants. Most were envious of his "freedom" and his lifestyle.
So I thought, what is freedom? Am I any less "free' because I am married with kids, house, dog, cars, cat etc? Am I tied down, because of these things, and therefor I should look in envy at a guy who can at a moment's notice leave and go somewhere else? Is that our definition of freedom?
In case you may agree with my above statements (and you are entitled to your opinion it is a free country after all!!) let me remind you: I am not tied down to anything or anybody. It is my choice each and every day to stay married, to remain a father (and there are plenty of "fathers' who won't have jack sh*t to do with their kids) keep my house (easier and easier to get rid of nowadays) sell my car, etc and have the same lifestyle as the person above. I might keep my dog, however! Like my daughter says, my dog is not really a dog, but is an "accessory!"
One of my people said it best: freedom is the opportunity to choose.
Because I choose each day to live the life I live, I don't feel any less free than my old employee and wish him the best of luck. Knowing I have a choice, I don't think I would choose his lifestyle.
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"-Janis Joplin
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- Bob
- Michigan, United States
- Husband, Father, avid reader, retired U.S. Navy
6 comments:
That's a good posting. you are right, it was not what i accpected from you. I thought you would do something on born to be free and riding mortorcycles.
I think of freedom as frreedom of choice. We can chose to do anytthing we want at any time. I'm with you and I chose to stay married (although some days who knows if that's the right choice..ahaha), but then again she probably thinks her choice wasn't good sometimes when I'm out late or when I stay on the computer all night long, but usually she thinks she made the right choices. LOL. Some people chose to not stay married and good for them too as you have the freedoms to do that. Like I always say, different strokes for differnet folks. We are free do be free or free to be free with someone. I think that was your point. As usually we agree. Keep being free and doing free things...the mind is always yours to do the chosing. Some lifestyles like your single worker are ok for some, but not others. We shouldn't fe jealous of them or them of us. We all chose what we choose when we chose it...and that's what I call freedom.
Well said Bob. I agree totally.
Well dad I'm glad that you chose to stay my dad, even though some days you might have wanted to kill me. HaHa. I like your post!
Thanks for the comments Anonymous! I could not agree with you more. Thanks Tara, Thanks Jen
Amen!
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