Things that Fly!

Tiny Universes

My extra large cup is half full. My socks don't match and my mittens are worn. I have a lot of scarves but none of them really match my coat. I have cold hands and a rough idea.

I'm sitting at this park bench in the city watching people walk there dogs. It's the summer and it's warm and I'm alone. I get this crazy idea about freedom. It's the actual cliche idea of freedom. It might be the only real anti-cliche, often quoted but never felt or thought about. And this idea of freedom isn't so much about freedom at all but rather the contrast of oppression versus lack of oppression.

It's a pacifist way of thinking. Probably something programmed into me through years of exposure to the culture we live in. It's not the way I think anymore. I have realized that simply because I am not beaten or made a slave does not mean that I am treated with the respect that every human being should be given. Distinctions are made and opinions of better or worse are consciously or unconsciously harbored. The world is figuring out it's place hierarchichally--Asking each other "Am I above you?" They don't ask much else.

It's hard to break that line of competitive thinking. It's hard to not just give conventional thinking a new label. If you look at everyone else like they're a sheep, then you're treating everyone with the same sort of hierarchical classification that you've tried so hard to break away from. And that's the back breaking task; looking at everyone with actual freedom. Treating everyone with the fundamental knowledge that they are human just like you. And if you're not doing this, you're not free. You're in the middle of a park in the middle of the city, contemplating your own shackles.

posted by Rob and Lauren @ 11:05 PM