Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, July 18, 2007


For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains,
but to live in a way that respects and enhances the
freedom of others.

- Nelson Mandela, free man, born on this day, 1918

Our world, then, is in a period of enslavement. I look around. I see a lot of people(s) seeking to cast off their perceived chains - with little awareness that they have wrapped the chains around them with their own hands. But equally, people(s) who have been enslaved by others against their will, whose masters still, after untold time, are determined to remain masters. This is something that I simply cannot understand. If people feel enslaved, oppressed, would it not eliminate an enormous amount of pain and suffering and guilt to “let my people go”? Can it really be that the lust for power and control, regardless of the misery it causes both slave and master, indeed has such power? Why can’t the Tamils be free? The Chechens? The Quebecois if they wish? The Kurds? Women, for that matter - why are men so determined to subjugate women in various subtle and not so subtle ways? Why does the Roman Catholic Church feel the need to reassert its absurd claim to “true church”, condemning the rest of Christendom to the status of outcast and slave?

Mandela is absolutely right. No one is free unless everyone is free. No person is free who cannot allow another freedom. Jesus taught this. All the great souls teach this. Which is why I know that those Islamists who seek to force others to live their way are insulting the spirit of the Prophet. The same for any religion. To be faithful, one must respect and enhance the freedom of others. Otherwise, all are doomed to misery and fear.

Jesus is reported to have said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. The truth is that, by nature, all persons are free. Mandela said, “There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living”.

Unless we choose to enhance and respect the freedom of others, we have chosen the way of the slave. It leads only to despair.

Brian+