October 4, 2002

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  Freedom from Want

  
  

  When Roosevelt gave his speech and Rockwell illustrated his Four Freedoms, both of them envisioned Freedom from Want as primarily answering the need to decrease political strife that prevents people around the world from having the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families.  Considering want from a paternal viewpoint, they looked at ways to take care of us, to save us from the horror of poverty and loss brought on when governments fail to do their job protecting the property rights of citizens.

  
  

  It was a popular slogan in the 1960's, early 1970's that "the personal is political," in considering my own life and the way that unspoken rules have influenced me has been the reverse, discovering that the political is personal.  As I have considered want and my orientation to the term, I have not focused on politics or societal mores, I've looked at my personal response to want, desire, and personal preference.  I hold it to be true that want is a condition which cannot be corrected from without but must be healed from within.

  
  

  My personal preference is to have a size 3 body.  My desire is to be attractive.  My want is freedom from the pain of arthritis and allergies which plague me.  My lack of this freedom negatively impacts my health and my ability to function "within normal parameters" as Star Trek's Data would put it.

  
  

  In general my life has been pleasant.  I have never had to wonder if there would be food, clothing, or shelter.  I have had and still have today a wonderful family.  Both my family of origin and my "in-law" family is peopled with caring, supportive, and {generally} respectful individuals who contribute to my need for belonging so easily that I have never suffered the pain of exclusion from the group.  Because of the pleasantness of my life, some people may think that from here on out I'm "talking with my mouth full."  Certainly, when I started focusing on the concept of "want," I had to let go a level of guilt that I should name my desires wants at all. 

  
  

  I began identifying my wants by looking at areas of my life where pain is either presently throbbing, or has been so constant that numbness has set into my soul.  What areas of my life are protected by pop-up distractions to insulate me from pain?  It didn't take me long to find myself wrestling in the hallway outside the doors to self-realization and self actualization.

  
  

  Poets, prophets and philosophers have dwelt in this corridor of pain.  William Drummond wrote, "Earth's sweetest joy is but disguised pain."  Thoreau saw a "quiet desparation" in most people's lives.  Existentialists described life as "absurd," a "useless passion", or simply "too much (de trop)."  Albert Schweitzer, who considered himself an optimist, said, "Only at quite rare moments have I felt really glad to be alive.  I could not but feel with a sympathy full of regret all the pain that I saw around me, not only that of men, but of the whole creation."  Buddha said that life, reality is "out of joint, off it's center."  He said that the pivot on which we turn is not smooth, there is a friction which minimizes creativity and maximizes conflict.  The Biblically based religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam hold the doctrine of a fallen world with man in a state of unregenerated need of grace to correct the problem of pain.

  
  

  The Christian tradition links pain and conflict to sin, humanity's predisposition to place selfish interest above other ethical, logical, communal, or even practical concerns.  Buddhism says our pain comes from a specific self-centered desire for private fulfillment.  Life being One, all that tends to separate one aspect from another must cause suffering to the unit which even unconsciously works against the Law.  So I arrive at the task of separating and understanding what elements of my character, my reasoning, my circumstances, or my community generate pain and conflict in my life then go forward applying the cure.

  
  

  Wherever I find pain, I am close to identifying a want, a lack.  The want may be a character flaw or a condition of my life.  The identification of the want is my beginning place for filling the hole hiding behind the pain.

  
  

  I'm reminded of the words of St. Paul, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."  The journey along the path to freedom from want is neither easy nor free of danger.  Wisdom from the world of addiction cautions us that pain drives us to self-defeating behavior.  When we have identified and let go of the addiction to alcohol that resulted from our fear of failure, it's easier to slip into an addiction to gambling, shopping, overeating or sex than it is to identify and address our underlying pain. 

  
  

  Spinoza's dictum that "to understand something is to be delivered from it" may point us in the right direction, but there is more to the process than understanding.  To be free of want, it is not enough to merely understand the distracting pains, it is to find the path that leads to authentic life, appreciation for beauty, childlike delight in the world around us, ethical conviction to live in compassion for my fellow man, transcendence of my cultural conditioning, and dedication to the work that fulfills my potential for creativity.

  
  

  (Over the past several days, the comments people have left here have revealed their own private struggles, considerations and perspective on this series of "Freedoms."  I would encourage anyone who hasn't done so to check out my comments section because in this cyber-community resides a collective wisdom that surpasses anything I can say in a single blog.  It's worth looking back through those comments if you got there early, you may have missed the one that would really speak to you in your situation.)

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