Freedom's just another word for nothing left to loose Nothing, I mean nothing honey if it ain't free, no no.
—As recorded by Janis Joplin.
I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery
All activities should be done with one intention. That intention is to realize our connection with all beings.
—Pema Chödrön
Freedom
It's time to write about freedom! I shied from this topic for a long time because it was not something I had experienced in this body before. I believed as Antoine that freedom was "of the mind" because that was the only experience of freedom I have had.
There is not an adequate definition of the word 'freedom' because it means so many different things to different people. Freedom is a state, not an absolute. There is 'freedom from' constraint or things undesirable; 'freedom of' speech, the press; 'freedom to' follow one's destiny, worship as one pleases. You see, freedom can be complicated to define, difficult to experience.
Two years ago I purchased a Vespa LX150 from a friend who decided to live in Germany. He had named the scooter "Angelica" and although I don't usually name or personify inanimate objects, I started referring to her (also female) by that name. After a short courtship, Angelica and I became connected. As strange as it might sound, I begin to trust her and felt trusted by her. I know the physical limits of her capabilities and she my physical constraints. When I am riding Angelica, I experience a connection between my conscious and unconscious, my awareness of everything around me is greatly increased over sustained periods of time, not just in bursts of insight.
It would be easy to attribute this heightened awareness to being on a scooter in a world of two ton automobiles, but it is not. I am very familiar with those senses because a bicycle was my primary means of transportation for over twenty years.
Beneath me, Angelica becomes a conduit to the unconscious, opening a connection with the rhizome of all life's unconsciousness. Her wheels are sensors to life's heartbeat. When traveling the many canyon roads through the vineyards, watching a pair of red tail hawks perform their arial matting ritual becomes more than just a beautiful visual. I am an active participant. I am flying. I am the tumbling, the falling, held in the tight safety of her talons, falling toward the earth, tumbling, the wind blowing through our feathers, matting and separating a few feet above the ground.
"This is freedom!" An unconscious voice says to my conscious mind. "It is the participation in being alive with all of life."
Thank you Angelica, my little Vespa with wings. Now I know.
Photo Credit: Angelica, SEPhillips, Digital Image, 2009.