A Word: Freedom

Everyone blogging in our small Week Word community is taking a break this week. However, my word of the week is freedom. I will be celebrating Passover with my family this upcoming week and one of the themes of Passover is freedom. The Jews were finally able to leave Egypt and the holiday is a celebration of this freedom given by God.
But what does it mean to be free? Freedom can make it difficult at times to maintain a meaningful life. Why? Because one then is governed by the freedom of choice and there is an abundance of choices to be made, including choosing what makes your life meaningful. As Dostoyevsky pointed out in his The Brothers Karamazov, If there is no God then everything is permitted.
I believe in our democracy, having freedom is essential, in my opinion, to honoring human rights and dignity. But tradition and my religious doctrine is also essential to meaning in my life. Some may think it takes away my freedom, but I feel that choosing to follow tradition and the precepts in my religion, I have been given even greater freedom in my spirituality. It gives my life meaning in so many ways, and to me is what it is all about.

I will not be blogging until later next week. I wish everyone a good holiday no matter what you observe and am looking forward to getting back to writing my thoughts about creativity.

Read more at: Simplicity.