The Flip Side of Freedom

My last post included a weird line that could’ve left some out there scratching their heads and mumbling to themselves…

WTF?

But, you see, the very fact that we talk to ourselves, without considering ourselves nuts, while considering everyone else who does the same, completely, sort of gets at my point…

Most of our thoughts give support to that nutty notion.

OK, the line I’m referencing read…

Because a place inhabited with folks without those glorious twinkles, is a place too full of loathing, and not nearly enough losing.

Allow me to elaborate…

You see when we’re full of self, or ego, we tend to do either one of two things…

We hate ourselves for not being as good as those other competing selves,

Or, we hate those other selves for not being as good as us.

Okay, “hate” might be too harsh a word. Is loathe better? How about dislike, distrust, or maybe, disassociate…??

All one needs to do is to walk around downtown Portland, especially the riverfront section on a Saturday or Sunday, and you’ll see a whole lot of folks who’ve lost it.

Not in the sense of “their minds”…although, for more than a few, that’s certainly debatable…

But in the sense of giving up, or losing the need to play the game I’ll call the “competition of selves.”

They’ve made the conscious choice to free themselves from participation in that full-contact and very bloody sport. Which, by the way, is a choice we’re all liberated to make.

But then there is the flip side of freedom. And I can see that more than a few are losing their freedom to freedom.

We don’t really sacrifice ourselves for material lacking in consciousness.

Do we?

OK, yes we have tree huggers, and those who want to save our oceans, not so much for the inanimate material of those unconscious things that take up space in our universe,…

but because they play a vital role in supporting and enhancing the life of conscious beings.

Without trees, minerals, the air and ocean, we, and other conscious beings, cannot exist.

But it’s hard to find the time, or feel the need, for impact when you’re fully engaged in the competition of selves.

The freedom endowed by no longer competing can be abused, or not impact-fully used. And I sense that’s occurring in Portland to some degree.

Folks needlessly shackling themselves once again…giving away their freedom to drugs and addictions that render them of little use to the good of the common consciousness.

So, while I am becoming enamored with Portland and its freedom loving inhabitants…

My perception of a prevalent abuse of that freedom is something to be concerned about.

But, hey, I’ve only been here a couple of days.

And it definitely seems like a super cool place to hang one’s hat for a while.