The path to freedom

I would like to begin with a definition of freedom, in order to grant some short bit of proof about its existence. Thereafter, I would divide freedom into various kinds and I might define them as well. As abstract a word it is, freedom remains as meaningful a word as it can get. Nelson Mandela used to write from prison that there is no easy way towards freedom; any kind of freedom. It may even be the one which touches your own personal redemption, because of which you wake up every morning and you give meaning to your day. And it may be for all of those nights which you have wished your life was a little easier, with more luck and less difficulties.
 
But the quote “everything which is worth hurts and is difficult” was not written by chance.
 
The world is overwhelmed by multiple blows which are often discarded once they are seen, so that we may avoid getting hurt. At other times you may close your eyes even to the blows against yourself. You surrender to absolute luck, absolute void, but somewhere inside you, you seek for hope to hang on to something, on someone.
 
No one told you how hard and filled with detours life can prove to be. No one guarantees you a happy ending. But as long as you are afraid for a sudden end, before you get to finish your own affairs in time during your short life chronicle, you manage to move on. You may move in small steps orin big leaps over big vacuums and air gaps. Many a time will you be reborn through the ashes and even more so will you shout that’s enough. But you will never give in completely. Till the last moment, the road to freedom will always lead you back to your own pace, it will give you true meaning. Only once you find freedom will you truly know how it feels to breathe.
 
All around us there are living examples of people who managed to discover who they truly are and weren’t scared.In a society full of juxtapositions, prejudices and hardships, people who discovered the way towards their own freedom, fought to the very end for their acceptance.
 
Nobody guaranteed that they would win. Nor did they promisesome kind of reward in the end of their own course.
 
For all of those who created many paths, treaded in dangerous alleys and found their main course once again, who saved themselves from the bitter end, luck was never on their side. But then again, they tailored it so that it fit just fine.
 
Your freedom, even though it is yours, will never come to you. You need to seek for it, like you seek for love and acceptance. You may need to seek for it even more than those. Gear up with some courage and willpower. The price at stake will be higher if you do not fight for what you believe. Nelson Mandela was in prison for 27 years from the white supremacists regime, for what he believed and supported. Patiently, he awaited his very moment of freedom. He got it literally and metaphorically.
 
No one whispered the end to him.
 
Feel free to fall and then get up again. Start anew. The way to freedom keeps us alive, no matter how complex it is. Andit does so by making us long for thatbreath of freedom and satisfactionwhich bringsyou to absolute – your own absolute -peace, whatever that is.
 

Translation: Miltos Bizios

Review: Niki Saridaki

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