Free

Over the last few months I have heard enough references to "Freedom" to last me for a life time. I say this because the people who continually bring it into the conversation have little or no experience with being free. It shows in their eyes that they are bound by their own ideas and convictions, incarcerated by their expectations, and restrained by their own ignorance. I say this as an observer who recognizes these imprisonments through my own attempts to let go of them. I am not wholly convinced that being free is really what anyone is after anyway since most people have a need for the acknowledgment of others to verify their existence.