Saturday, April 18, 2020

Free

4 comments:

deborah said...

So smooth, so sweet. I miss the Seventies. Thanks Lem.

MamaM said...

I'm curious as to what prompted Lem to post this particular song.

On my end, I don't miss the Seventies. I graduated from high school in 72, college in 77 and spent long hours writing papers on a manual typewriter about things that in the long run didn't matter a whit. I was educated and naive, in tune yet out of touch, still caught in an illusion-land world view of life and relationship. The sappy love theme was big during those years. Freeeeeeeee to do what? With whom? For whom?

Although I was able to travel extensively for ten years following college and enjoy that form of freedom, I also found doing so lonely. My decision to marry and stay home when our children were born to raise them ultimately changed my life, fulfilling it and providing a context and purpose I couldn't have imagined back then. Although following through on those commitments has not been without challenge and difficulty, doing so opened a door to the freedom of being I now hold, treasure and experience as real. (Except when the threat of the Jackboot rises and takes me back to the weird rigidity and capriciousness that was part of my early years culminating in the 70's before I was able to adequately provide for myself.)

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm curious as to what prompted Lem to post this particular song.

The talk of easing up on the virus mitigation restrictions.

MamaM said...

Yes, I wondered if that might be it.

After Michigan's Gridlock protest took place in Lansing on Wed, I decide to take myself out of house arrest and engage in my own form of protest by returning to work in the studio I rent. I'd stopped going there when Whitmer issued her more restrictive April 10 directive. Since I work alone in that space, I am not infecting anyone else or putting myself in harm's way by not following those orders. However, my car shows up as the only one parked there on the street when I'm there and I previously did not want to stand out as a scofflaw. Before Wed, I was intent on following the rules, and now I am feeling the freedom to choose a different path.

This is what I like about blogs, as they provide an opening to more and further consideration on my part, based on the offerings of others, whether I like or agree with what's been said or presented. A comment on missing the seventies, different from my experience, helped me realize choosing a different path back then also led to more of the freedom I cherish now.

There's going to be a lot of choices that needed to be determined and made as we move forward into this reopening. It's definitely a time of transition, with the value of freedom and personal responsibility once again coming to the forefront. I'm reminded of how I've felt returning to life-as-normal-yet-not-normal following the death of a loved one. Engagement is required, with the value of life highlighted and accompanied by the awareness of loss and the turning of a page that can't be undone. It's a strange place to be--a two-handed reality. Free to begin to move and re-engage with a clearer awareness of what matters most.