Freedom
America's Self-Defining Value
Recently I was sitting around a fire, cleaning a rifle, talking with some friends. It was a starry April night and everyone was willing to be vulnerable. Someone asked, “what’s the one thing you want to do before you die?” Everyone understood the question wasn’t about bucket lists. It was really: What is the one thing you must do so that, when your time comes, you can go without regret?
There were great answers—get married, have kids, tell her I love her, see the northern lights, fix things with my parents. But the one that stuck with me was this:
“I want to know what true freedom feels like.”
I knew his answer came from a place of honesty because I’ve felt true freedom before. I first felt it when I took the above photo.
In that moment freedom was the glare of an alpine blaze you only get to witness if you wake well before sunrise.
In that moment freedom was the chill blain in my toes— earned by wearing the wrong kind of boots.
Freedom, I’ve come to believe, exists in a state of superposition. One moment you exclaim, “I can do anything I want!” excited with abundant opportunity. The next, you admit, “I can do anything I want.” in recognition that limitless choices are as overwhelming as they are deflating.
At the core of true freedom is choice. What you will do and what you won’t do. Every year I’ve continually chosen to head to our national parks. Since melting in that frigid, Colorado sun, I find myself yearning to venture back into the mountains. Into the backcountry; into freedom. But I’ve discovered that it is not nature who calls to me, but I to her. The siren’s call comes from inside the house.
I think Paine and Jefferson understood this much. This might be an extravagant interpolation, but together I think they tell us that freedom— the sum of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness— lies in the heart of every man and is self-evident in its worth.
With independence day around the corner, I hope you look to the places that reflect the freedom within your spirit. For most of us, this will be fireworks on the 4th of July. An apt physical metaphor for a value juxtaposing beauty and terror, enervation and explosion. If you can’t find freedom within yourself or in the summer skies, I suggest looking towards the mountains.