Freedom, in and of itself, is probably one of the most abstract, expansive, and complex ideas that can be explored. The generations and civilizations before us were fascinated by the idea of it. The construct of it. The pursuit of it. The absence, or presence of it. The gift of it.
For thousands of years, human beings have examined the concept of freedom - - -
Political.
Economic.
Personal.
Activists, political theorists, leaders, dissenters.
Philosophers, thinkers, writers, poets.
Playwrights, filmmakers, painters, creators.
Treatises, manifestos, poems, plays written and shared. Paintings, films, illustrations, installations, and experiments.
Government systems architected, implemented, critiqued, destroyed, rebuilt.
Space programs funded and powered by thousands of people devoted to finding a way to untether ourselves from the physical forces of gravity and the planet we call home, with one goal: to test the outermost boundaries of our known world in search of where freedom of exploration, and from our own planet, can take us.
Entire bodies of work have been built around the idea of freedom: how to reach it, how to keep it, how to expand it, and a path to all of the above that seems to forever stay just out of reach.
I, like so many before me and so many who will follow, find myself returning to this idea over and over again. The last few years of my life have been devoted to (re)building a life centered around total creative freedom. Not just a career, my entire existence.
What anyone who has tried, succeeded, or even failed at doing this will probably tell you is that what we perceive to be freedom, and convince ourselves we have, is often merely the surface. A starting point; a tiny thread that, if pulled, begins to unravel into more questions, more confrontations with how restricted - - - mentally, emotionally, spiritually, creatively - - - we may actually be, and answers you don't expect, found in places you never thought to look. What you eventually find is that true personal freedom, lived and experienced, runs deeper than external circumstances; it depends on far more than political or religious choice, finances, or freedom of time.
And while all of this is very much an on-going personal inquiry, it seems to me that it might also (or should be) be a very timely, collectively-relevant one.
First, because I don't believe the first two - - - political and economic freedom - - - can be attained in their true form on any meaningful collective level without the third kind: personal (meaning: individual and internal) freedom. After all, every collective is, in the end, the accumulated expression of individual lives, minds, perspectives, and beliefs. A collective can never become more free than the individuals continually creating and sustaining it.
Secondly, because we live in a time where the world, our culture, our societies, and even the technology we've built are slowly and surely, mostly quietly, but sometimes loudly, chipping away at our agency - - - of thought, of choice, of identity. There is no more important time to ask what being truly free means, what it looks like, what it feels like, and what needs to happen both internally and externally not only to reach it, but to give others access to it too.
Finally,
a new mixtape and soundtrack (MXTP.003) from
The Soundroom for the moments when we need a higher perspective, or perhaps a lift – in mindset, in spirit, in view. If you want to listen while you explore the rest, click the link above to go straight to the playlist +
press play.
Thanks for being here,
