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Freedom

By Stephen Philip Walrath on September 28, 2024 12:48 pm

Dear Grandson,

You will be introduced to a word that will become a very familiar and important word to understand on your journey to building self.

Freedom.

Most think of freedom as being able to do what you want, when you want.  People talk about “being free” and “we live in a free country” with the idea that there is not a king or ruler to tell us what to do (as your sixteenth century ancestors had to do in Germany as subjects working a farm in a province ruled by a prince.)

There is a deeper meaning to freedom that is more accurate to your daily living since in reality we are not “free” to do what we want, whenever we want. Think of freedom, as outlined by historian Timothy Snyder (“On Freedom”) as establishing your own values and ideals as your foundation, and when presented with choices, having the ability to realize those values through your personal power of choice.  It is also called having sovereignty, the power of self-rule.

Those who mistake freedom as doing whatever they want, no matter the consequences or effects it will have on others, are in reality living negative freedom.  The idea being, if they get rid of what they perceive as a barrier to their happiness, then they are free. Except nothing exists in a vacuum.  If you take something away, something else will replace it.  Freedom is the active state of living your values and ideals and using your personal power to make them come true.

If you value family, your freedom would then be to mentally, emotionally and physically include your family, not redefine it to exclude everyone except who YOU think fits your definition of family as only those who make you happy.  If you value wisdom, then your freedom would open your mind to include many ideas and thoughts different from your own in order to evaluate what produces your highest ideals of love, generosity, and inclusion.  If you value other humans – neighbors, friends, co-workers, strangers crossing your path – then your freedom will engage empathy to understand, help, and stand next to them, rather than exclude, shun, or pretend they are objects less than human.

You now see there are preconditions to really being free.  Your values and ideals must be established as your own and not the projected history of someone else’s unresolved emotional struggles and misinterpretations of the world. Those values are then your foundation from which you exercise your personal power to bring them to life, you make choices based on those values in spite of the protests of those who are unfree, enslaved by their pursuit of yet to be fulfilled desires of self-esteem, self-value, and self-idealization.

Be Free my grandson!  Exercise your personal power to bring more love, joy, and peace into this world.

And know that you are valued and never alone.

Grandpa Steve

Published in Letters to my Grandson

Stephen Philip Walrath
Stephen Philip Walrath

Stephen is an author, teacher, and thought leader in human Value and Worth. He is the author of Thinking Out Loud - Uncovering An Extraordinary Life, Uncommon Sense for Unreasonable Times, Cultivating a Winner from Within, and a Divorced Parent's Guide to Seeing Your Kids.

Stephen has traveled the world teaching Executive Leadership and Value skills on three continents to such companies as General Motors, Trek Bicycles Worldwide, FBI, U.S. Navel Academy, New Scotland Yard, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and hundreds more.
 
Walrath is the Past President of Crime Stoppers International with responsibilities for over 1200 programs in 17 countries. He was the President of Great Radio Broadcasting, transforming a single AM radio station into 8 enterprises doing business in 3 countries, earning him the YMCA’s of America Key Leader Award.
 
Stephen is married with three grown children and lives in southern Wisconsin. He and his wife, Gabriella, are proud shareholders of the Green Bay Packers.

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