Freedom versus Freedom Just for the Hell of It.

From www.richjewett.com and the Bitter Medicine team.

I remember my fourth-grade teacher getting into a righteous fit of pique and telling our class that we were the worst-behaved kids she’d ever had to deal with. And it wasn’t the last time we were to hear that, a line that some of us, I must admit, responded to with a touch of pride: Oooh, we’re so bad, aren’t we? Ten years later, some of us were hitting the streets as hippies, and quite a few of those hippies went from rejecting the rules of the culture they’d grown up in only to take on religions from foreign cultures with more rules than they knew what to do with. Even those of us who didn’t go that way often had to face a few hard lessons about rules and structure, especially about reining ourselves in. 

So, I was recently listening to an old Darrell Scott song, “I Wanna Be Free,” and it got me thinking. Then I heard a bunch of thirty-somethings chanting pretty much the same thing at a New Age-flavored gathering: “Freedom, freedom, freedom!” they sang, followed by a young songwriter moaning the same refrain: “Freedom!” as if he didn’t have any. And I had to ask, “So tell me. Just what freedom are you lacking right now? Freedom from responsibility? Freedom from the consequences of your own actions? And who’s depriving you of all this freedom you say you miss?” We hear teenagers wailing about their lack of freedom, then when we see them exercising what they think is their freedom and winding up in jail, we’re inclined to ask, “So, kid, ya feel free in there?” And we might see them twenty years later living in some slumlord hellhole or in a cardboard box under a bridge. “Feel free yet, pal?”

 It’s especially poignant when we hear folks who’d grown up in the old Soviet Bloc countries, or in places like Central or South America, Southeast Asia, Africa or the Middle East, people who have experienced life under truly serious tyranny, and it’s no surprise to see their anger at these spoiled Americans who have no clue at all.

The teenager is an interesting case because that’s where so much of it comes to a head. That’s the theme of Darrell Scott’s song where a young girl is taking off with her boyfriend into a world of hurt where she has no idea of what she’s about. It’s a parent’s nightmare—kids full of glorious ideals and hormones, and barely a clue of the dangers they’re heading into. And while there’s nothing new in any of it, what is a fairly recent development is the attitude in so many teens that no one has the right to tell them anything or make them do anything they don’t want to do.

 Most of us recall how as kids all those daily chores seemed such an unfair burden, how feeding the dog, taking out the trash, washing the dishes, cleaning up our rooms, making our beds and all the rest of that stupid stuff was just so overwhelming, so tedious, so insulting to our pride. But then, the things that compel us to mature throughout our childhood and teen years are just that: feeding the dog, taking out the trash, washing the dishes, cleaning up our rooms, making our beds and all the rest of that stupid stuff. And it goes on like that because life is full of stupid stuff that has to be done, and the greatest challenge at any age is to do anything we can to stretch ourselves beyond our habits, to take on responsibilities we’ve been avoiding—essentially doing whatever it is that challenges us to take life on in a constructive way.

I recently received an email from a young woman at a local public office and found a tag line at the bottom of her signature: I will do today for those who won’t so that tomorrow I can do for those who can’t. So, how do we develop mature ego strength? That’s how. And, yes, it really is as easy as that, for that’s how we truly find freedom in life—by growing up.