Fireworks & Remembrance

Last night we were surrounded by huge bonfires and a sky full of fireworks celebrating the death of Guy Fawkes and the failure of his plot to blow-up Parliament, to win freedom for the Catholics.  Today we commemorated the dead of two world wars who died amongst much more deadly explosions to ensure our freedom.  History is full of examples of people trying to win  freedom for one group at the expense of another. 

The thing is that freedom can never really be given or taken by another, as Viktor Frankl observed “Everything can be taken from a man but … the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”  And he tested this in the extreme crucible of Auschwitz. 

We have so many reasons for not doing things that we justify dwelling in a virtual prison of our own making.  Perhaps today is a good day to consider removing a brick or two from the walls we have built and asking ourselves what is really stopping us from doing what we feel drawn to, and living our lives to the full.

Tags: fear, freedom, liberty

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 9th, 2008 at 13:53 and is filed under Personal Change, Values & Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.