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What does it mean to be truly free?

Many of us live lives constrained by externalities. We have debt, family, friends, pets, jobs and more, all dependent on our presence or support.

Are we still free?

If we succumb to the pressures of commercialism and marketing, becoming part of the greater community rather than islands of solitude, purchasing things to make us feel better, buying love or happiness or friendship, are we still free?

If we resist those pressures, determined to exist outside the community of people who desire something from us, bound to avoid the whims and caprices of society, if we manage to isolate ourselves from the banshees of advertising or need that hound us at all hours, if we build a bulwark of independence that does not depend on “others” for anything, are we still free?

Perhaps freedom, ultimate freedom, is a state of mind beyond our ability to attain. Perhaps we can only be partially free, chained to this planet and these people who contribute to the selves we display, as if we’re apart from them, as if we’re not connected by an umbilical cord that feeds us constantly, nourishing our development into the creatures we wish to be.