Freedom

 One of my favorite things to do is to sit on a beach with a book. I am a slow reader, painfully slow at times unless the book really captivates me. Only a few books have done that for me, the earliest I can remember is Treasure Island when I was like 10 or 11. Since then there have been a couple - Freedom at Midnight, Into thin air. 

Coming back to the beach - I remember almost 10 years ago I was sitting on a beach reading Jack London’s Road. Those kind of books (into the wild being another one) really appealed to me back then. Something about giving everything up, with minimal possessions and ultimate freedom. It’s almost like in that state I can finally do what I really want to do. Instead of worrying about mundane things and responsibilities, many of which are of my own making. Even now sometimes I find myself fantasizing about what it would be like if I really had nothing - no possessions, no job, no responsibilities. Just pure freedom. It feels appealing, it feels like it would be liberating. But maybe (and very likely) that’s just me romanticizing something which most people who are in that situation try to escape. I am not sure. There have been books written by people who finally found happiness when they “lost” everything. 

It is true though that most of chains that we carry are of our own making. And made by society. “I should do this, I should have this etc etc”. Maybe there is a balance to be had - between a hobo and a societal slave. That’s what I think I aspire towards and to be honest I think i have achieved a lot of it. There are still some chains, and some of them I recognize as of my own/society’s making. But I feel relief in the fact that I can identify them as such and probably break free of them soon too. 

Ideally I would like to live in a society where the societal/cultural norms don’t chain but liberate people. I don’t think such a society exists yet. But it totally could. And with continuing progress it would. A society with almost unlimited wealth that everyone is a billionaire equivalent. Actually “billionaire” won’t even make sense in that society. Material wealth will be like air - free and everywhere. No one will have to hoard wealth - like we don’t hoard air now. This society is totally possible, and there is nothing fundamental preventing us from reaching there - only our choices as a civilization. 

Not sure how I ended up in this tangent but there it is. 

Freedom.