Tony the Tiger

I've never been inclined to journal well, nor even to write much at all. My past erratic smattering of flotsam and jetsam in this space is an example of how that generally goes for me.

I've decided to draw a little line in the sand here ... *picks up small piece of driftwood, places one end in the soft dirt, drags for a short but metaphorically relevant distance creating a small furrow of demarcation*

From here forward I think I'm going to try some things with words on a more regular basis. I expect I will be prone to rambling aimlessly at length, never having been a master of the laconic, despite my profound appreciation for compaction. Until I feel otherwise inspired or confident in my own voice I will start with seeds from other voices.

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http://tinyurl.com/FreedomIsSomethingYouAssume

"Freedom is something you assume and you wait for someone to try to take it away from you.
The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free."
- Utah Phillips quoting an old organizer named Campbell

Less than a month ago I found myself at Burning Man 2008 where the year's theme was "The American Dream." As a Canadian iconoclast this seemed an odd fit, but people took the theme to many interesting places, including a heavily multicultural undertone for some elements. A part of that theme was somewhat political and philosophical as well.

Along the drive, in response to some stimulus I've since forgotten, I had used my stochastic mental filing system to spill forth the above quote remembered from a Utah Phillips album (likely his labour history celebration called "Fellow Workers" although possibly his earlier album called "The Past Didn't Go Anywhere..."). I had let that moment of conversation slip from my consciousness almost immediately like a goldfish castle but it evidently had some resonating impact on my friend who was driving.

At a number of points the quote resurfaced that week, including a remarkable moment at perhaps 1 or 2AM when I heard Utah's voice amplified over the playa from an unknown source near the Center Camp keyhole reciting not that exact quote but other related stories and folk songs (which was odd and uplifting to me in a place where most amplified sound carried strains of trance/rave/dance music). The most memorable time was near the base of The Man where an art installation which had, along with an enlarged photo of the handwritten Declaration of Independence, a listing of the names of every elected official in the branches of the American government and an open invitation to write something down that you would want to say to all of them. As we examined it my friend suddenly asked me "What was that quote again?" I found myself in a moment of personal theatre, projecting my voice just slightly so the dozen or more proximate participants could hear, and reciting the quote aloud. It felt rather poignant for me.

When I think of the quote itself I find it difficult to viscerally resonate with the ideals and behaviour of the proactive, dedicated labour organizers or agitators from which the quote originated, nor am I usually able to muster the appropriate dedication for physical or even verbal and literary political activism. In part I blame my pseudo-Taoist outlook and its wei wu wei and using things like Mu to get to Pu, but that is just a fancy multilingual neo-spiritual way to say that I'm somewhat lazy. I am not so strong of will as those others who so generously strive, seek and find this kind of freedom for us all. I find myself more often inclined, in a somewhat Canadian fashion, to sweetly and politely yield whenever I can. As such, I find myself unprepared to discuss the quote in one of those more natural and arguably important contexts.

When I hear this particular quote I can feel it resonating most in a context that I find meaningful in my daily life. The way I see it is this: Our lives runneth over with boundless opportunities and limitless possibilities. Every moment there are just so very many options which we are free to choose, avenues which we are free to explore, beauty which we are free to inhale, wonder which we are free to acknowledge, horizons we are free to strive toward and simple joys we are free to generate and share. I mean to say that in every moment the child-like in you can feel and know when it is time find, do or be something wonderful:

- to break into public song or dance or both (with or without the accompaniment of music or your friends)
- to twirl in place a time or two simply for the sensation of it
- to crouch down low and spend some time and rapt attention on the activities of the local insect life, or perhaps the activities of the local plant life
- to pretend for a time that you and yours are the walking dead and shamble through the streets of your own town
- to smile brightly at another ostensible stranger and perhaps even *gasp* say hello
- to hold her hand
- to point out something beautiful
- to ignore the second thought and follow the first
- to find a friendly star and say hello
- ...

This endless list of possibilities in every moment of our lives is constantly trimmed and curtailed by ourselves under such pressures as convention, propriety, reputation, apathy, habit, regulation, timidity, etiquette and a thousand other self-imposed limits. I say this because nearly all limits are self-imposed. The words describing things like allowed, permitted, prohibited and such are all tied to another entity claiming some right of approval over the choices in your own life and actions. For many reasons we all constantly will choose to give at least an inch of our freedom away in order to survive, thrive and get along with others in this world, but why do so many of us allow this toehold of compromise to become a seven league boot-step into our sphere of possibility, needlessly bounding us in our own nutshells when we could choose to be the monarchs of our own infinite spaces.


I do not universally practice what I am preaching in this little sermon, but I feel the least wasteful and the most proud of myself each time I realize that I chose to follow my child-like intuitions, instincts or impulses without regard to the pressures of propriety or convention. That is when I thrum with the freedom of the now.

The moment realized. 

The life lived.