What Is Freedom Worth To You? Something To Think About
'Something We Must've Forgotten'
This is a short poem that I wrote in 2013 and I recently stumbled upon it. I'd like to share it along with sharing some reflective insight on the poem. It is called 'Something We Must've Forgotten' by me (Brandon Holsey - @grow-pro)
Put an ant in a jar with the lid on tight
It will try to escape all day and night
If you take the lid off, then it will run free
Because that's just the way it's supposed to be.
Reflection From The Author
The ant is a symbol of strength and resilience, which signifies the necessary tools that one would need to truly seek freedom. We are in a jar right now. Look around...Comfortable isn't it..not bad for a jar, huh? The ant is not complacent..look at him..still trying to escape..always seeking freedom and never becoming complacent.
You can barely see him, but he can see you. You think you are strong, but the ant is much stronger.
It seeks it's freedom until it dies. We seek freedom until we are told it is impossible..then we become complacent and comfortable with our surroundings while calling it “adapting”. The ant NEVER adapts to this jar. It will circle the lid seeking a way out until it falls over and dies.
What drives the ant's desire for freedom? Is it because it actually knows what it is like and will stop at nothing to go back to what it has known: Freedom? Until death it seeks control of its original, natural path, regardless of circumstance or environment; that is TRUE FREEDOM to me.
Concluding Thoughts & Questions to Consider
Who are we to put them in a jar in the first place?
Freedom is worth death to an ant, what is it worth to you?
I'd Love To Hear From My Fellow Steemians On This!
@grow-pro Great post, it got me thinking a lot. I think the ant is a great symbol for strength and resilience. But I also think the reasons for which it is a fantastic metaphor for those traits also explain why an endless fight is "worth" the struggle to the ant and why a confined existence is "worth" the trouble to a person. The ant, incapable of analytical thought and driven only by primal urges is more analogous to a warrior or a zealot specifically than to a human generally. The capacity for sociopathy and the ability to rationalize that sociopathy (even by its victims) require uniquely higher modes of thought, and unfortunately the latter allows for a proliferation of the former. Our capacity to self-reflect gives us the ability to understand how to live free; but our historical acceptance of a “tolerable” level of violence and our collective unwillingness to approach the world thoughtfully prevents greater freedom from becoming a certainty. Hopefully, through spreading of knowledge and greater philosophical debate, the dream will morph into reality.
“Live free or die, death is not the worst of evils.”
-General John Stark
I love the freedom graphic at the end. Is that your work? It would not surprise me if it were.
"Freedom is worth death to an ant, what is it worth to you?"
Liberty is worth any price to me. I do not say that lightly. A heavy price could be paid by me at any minute because of my public defense of liberty.
That's okay with me though, for it really is worth it. If we allow ourselves to be kept inside jars (tax farms with imaginary lines), we will never live the way we were meant to live as free sentient electrical beings.
@finnian I was about to ask the same question, did @grow-pro reply?
I wish to credit the creator of that freedom animated gif image in my post - I like it.
I've known @grow-pro for years. He wears many hats, and one of them is a skilled graphic artist's.
That means many different things to many different people, so let me explain it further. See the bird in my post signature? He drew each image of the bird in different positions to create the flight from left to right. It took him hours.
He will design my security and private investigation web page too, and I plan to pay him in STEEM! :)
I am also fortunate to have had him design my business card and other business logos. If you ever need quality work done in that regard, he may be able to help. He grew tired of people ripping him off though while doing graphic art and web development.
Growing has become far more rewarding for him too!
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