Liberate Your Story Podcast

Freedom

This is a hard word. When we say a word is loaded, this is that word.

You’ve heard that America is the land of the free, right? Have you stopped to think about what that means, really? If we are the land of the free then are the rest of the lands NOT free?

You’ve also heard, if you come from an American faith system, that we are ”Free in Christ” or the phrase “set the captives free”. But have you considered what you are being freed from?

I told you that we were going to dive into the language we use and how it forms who we are and how we think. But have you considered THESE questions before? Have you ever questioned the word “freedom” and how we use it? How it affects you as an individual OR how it effects us as a society when we only live into the surface assumption (or mantra) that it is?

Most likely not…unless… you have felt that freedom was not within your grasp.

Freedom means, according to Webster, “ the quality or state of being free: not subject the control or domination of another.”

NOW how does that feel? NOW do you question what freedom is? What it feels like? Or even if you ARE free?

THIS WORD…oh my goodness. To question its meaning as an American, is quite, well, almost unAmerican. It is the highest tenant of our citizenship. It is the very thing our men and women go to war over. It is the essence of who we are and how we live. But does it bring you conflict to consider what it looks like in everyday real life? It does me. So I decided we should talk about it.

It is my freedom to own certain things, say certain things, believe certain things, and even buy certain things. But what if MY freedom keeps you from YOUR freedom?

For example, what if me believing that homosexuals are depraved and immoral, means you no longer can marry who you want to?

What if me building empires of wealth means you can barely live off the wage I pay you?

What if me not wearing a mask around you while I have an infectious disease, means you get really sick?

Did I touch some hot buttons? I bet I made you squirm or even become angry. This is because these are the real-life things we deal with. These are the things that are polarizing our society right now.

Freedom, for me, is only freedom when it’s freedom for you too. Otherwise, it’s a right I yield for myself to suit myself. Freedom is a release from control but if we use that freedom to keep others under control then it’s not actually freedom, is it? It’s power.

When we adapt, from a young age, to the culture around us, we don’t often feel the meaning of our language until we come into conflict with it. As Americans, that moment is often when we aren’t sure if we are being treated fairly or equally. When we hit a limit within that language, we start to question what the words mean or what their context is. And eventually, how does this affect me.

In 2020, many of us faced this moment. We saw BIPOC Americans treated differently, violently, right in front of us…on our phone screens. We saw black men murdered with no filter from the press or agencies. We saw Americans act in ways that exploited and killed other Americans, in the name of freedom. Now…was this new to us? No. not at all. But it was in front of us in a way we could not turn away or dismiss. Honestly, I think it was what we needed, but sadly, devastatingly, at the expense of humans who should be alive today. White America was faced with themselves. Many of us accepted it as a place to grow and evolve and even be part of the solution. But others, others decided they had freedoms that excused the behaviors of racism, misogyny, and hate. And this, my friends, was the most painful realization of being American. Freedom now had an ugly side. Freedom now didn’t feel so free.

There was an exchange happening in our language, in our culture. It came from the top down, the media, the big voices in America. We traded the word Freedom for the word Rights.

I couldn’t escape the internal conflict that was, is, happening to me as an American white heterosexual woman. I began the exploration of my comfort, ease, abilities, access, and choices to others who were not white or heterosexual. I saw that some of my “rights” were affecting whether someone else had the freedom to simply be a human being.

The conclusion I came to was this: If you’re right disables another human from having freedom, then you are acting in power. Power disables justice. That is not love. Your right then hurts others and is no longer your freedom. It’s simply power.

I didn’t consider myself a person of power. I didn’t see anything powerful about me. But I made a choice to find the areas in my life that held power over others. I could not rest until equality was as easily accessible to everyone as it was to me.

This journey does a couple of things for you. It opens your eyes really wide and lets a lot of new information in. It also asks you to live differently. And even more, it starts to show you where your own limits to freedom are.

Women in America have been fighting for decades to find a place of equality with men. Our cry has not been for power OVER men, just equality. We want the same rights to our bodies, minds, income, and, frankly, all the things that men have. We accept the vast array of differences in our beings and we have simply wanted a way to play in one game instead of two separate games. And that’s just white women. Add to the mission, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+, and you get layer upon layer of equality cries. Power is the commodity that we live by in America. Not freedom.

So what do we do with this word freedom? How do we relate to it, absorb it, live in it if it is so jaded by power and injustice? It can feel a bit hopeless.

I don’t want to leave you feeling hopeless. I want to leave you feeling that Freedom is neither a moral or an immoral thing. It just is. AND you have access to it anytime you want it. “But what about the issues of inequality?” you ask. Ya…they will always be there and we should always fight for them to change. But freedom doesn’t have to wait for that day. It is yours now.

Freedom is living without the domination of another. So what ways can we live today without domination from someone else? Let me just name a few….

You are FREE to be who you want to be. This means you can think and believe however you want! I mean it. No matter what environment, culture, or belief system you are a part of, your thoughts and beliefs belong to you. What you value belongs to you. How you see the world belongs to you. Who you love belongs to you.

Laws can restrict our behaviors but freedom isn’t always about what the laws permit. Freedom is about how you see the world and your life in it. When you see yourself as equal to men, you will live equal to them. If you see yourself worthy of love, you will live-giving love to anyone you come in contact with. If you see the world as open to all people, then you will travel to all the places and meet all the people. The limits to your freedom first come from you, they come from how you see `outside of yourself. The way you see the world is your programming. Change your programming and you change your world. You change your world and you change how others experience life. Now that, my friend, is real power. It’s power that gives freedom to ALL of us.

I won’t diminish, though, the need for liberation from the power of others. We need that too. Place your hands out in front of you. Raise one hand up higher, above your head. Let the other hand drop lower, towards your waist. This is injustice. The higher hand is power. The lower hand is oppression. Justice is not switching them so the oppressed have the power. Begin drawing both hands towards level, likely landing near your heart. This is true freedom. Justice is when no one is oppressed and no one has power over others. It feels a bit idealistic, I know. But if this is our goal, then we will be pointing our sails in the right direction. We will find freedom in living towards justice.

We do need to keep calling it out and fighting for a way of life that leaves us all free. If you have ease and accessibility that others around you do not have, it is up to you to find ways to balance the scales of justice. It’s not always about waiting for the laws to change…it is about you doing that thing in that moment that allows someone else a step closer to equal freedom. Let go of power, comfort, and ease and move towards justice, freedom for all of us. Liberating our own story often involves liberating others from a story that keeps them oppressed. May I remind you that no matter what belief system you have chosen to live by, if the offer for freedom leaves you or someone else without freedom… it's not really freedom. It’s a club at best. So ask yourself if your beliefs leave someone else without the same freedoms as you. If it does, it might be time to liberate yourself from programming that only serves a few.

Liberate your programming and you liberate your story!