Question of the Day - When Do You Feel Most And Truly Free?

A friend recently asked me: When do you feel most and truly free? I said that I feel most and truly free when I’m at a park asking people when they feel most and truly free. So I went and I did that!

Matt, musician: I think in a hammock, falling asleep. There's this hammock at my buddy's cottage, falling asleep there with the wind blowing you back and forth is pretty surreal.

How often do you get to do that?

Maybe once a year.

Why don’t you do it more often?

I guess I’m working towards that because I can’t really support myself doing that all the time right now so I have to work. But that’s the goal. Being in a hammock all day.

So you’re saying freedom isn’t free?

No. I think that discipline equals freedom. Like, I heard somewhere that if people didn’t have the discipline to follow the rules of the road people wouldn’t be as safe travelling, you wouldn’t get places as quickly, stuff like that. It takes a lot of effort.

When did you feel most free in your life?

I think right now, in this moment. I think about where I want to be in the future and it’s very uplifting, it’s really freeing to think about it all.

Keith, artist: When I’m performing on stage. There’s no turning back and I’m really the only one in control.

Any performance in particular where you felt most free?

When my band first started we often played a venue called The Boat. I can recall those shows being situations where I would entirely change compositions of songs in the middle of songs and people would hate me for it until the end and everyone was laughing and having a lot of fun.

How often do you get to do that?

Not as much recently but I would say an average of 20 times a year.

Are you free right now?

I am free right now. And I’m doing absolutely nothing with that freedom.

Is freedom free?

No, everything has a price. For the things you have there is a price at which you’d give them up and the things you don’t have there is a price at which you’d have them. In that sense, be they material or philosophical ideas, I think they all have a price.

So freedom is tied in with your capacity to sacrifice?

Yes. Absolutely.

When did you feel most free in your life?

Without an agenda on an island in the Georgian Bay.

Mike, dreamer/believer/achiever: I feel pretty truly free all the time. I’m lucky that I don’t have to do anything that I don’t want to do.

How are you so lucky? Is it by choice or circumstance?

All the jobs that I do and all the work that I do I enjoy. So I never feel like I’m doing something that I don’t want to do. So because of that I feel like I live a truly free lifestyle.

Is freedom free?

No. You still have to work for it. But it’s about finding what you enjoy to do, sometimes for free, to live for free.

When did you feel most free in your life?

Probably within the last year because previous to that I had been working jobs I had hated. Most people, work is what most drains them, it’s when they’re selling themselves. I sell my skills but not my body.

So your freedom is entwined with your time in and outside work?

Exactly. What I get paid to do I do for fun, what I do for fun I sometimes get paid to do.

Where is the most free place on Earth?

I spent a week on the beaches in California. It seemed pretty free there. There were lots of people living on the beach and they seemed to enjoy it. Here there are street people who seem like they’re roughing it and every day is a bit of a stretch. But it’s not that way in California.

Would you give up your freedom?

No. Not for anything.

Yateh and Nadia, a fraud prevention agent and a student.

Nadia: I think just before I fall asleep. You know, the things you’re thinking about might come up in your dreams. And you don’t have any obligations, you’re just lying there.

Yateh: When you’re reading a good book. I feel totally relaxed, into it, in another realm depending on the book. I just feel like nothing really matters while you’re reading and so captivated with those characters.

Any book in particular?

Yateh: Pride and Prejudice!

I hated that book.

Yateh: No way it’s amazing.

How often do you get to read and feel free?

Yateh: Usually before bed. And I guess if you read it before bed you get to have that action scene while you’re dreaming and you can be part of it. Like, I can be Elizabeth and have my own Mr. Darcy! (Squeals.)

Nadia: Oh god.

Barf! Is freedom free?

Yateh: No. I feel like, working a job, putting time in somewhere else, I pay for my freedom by working a lot and then I have my time off.

Nadia: I guess that’s the case depending on how you view your freedom. I feel like, I feel free before I go to sleep. I can be sleep deprived but I can always sleep, it’s not something anyone can take away from me. It’s not something I have to pay for. Anyone, depending on how they view freedom, can have it.

Are you free right now?

Yateh: Yeah. Just chillin in the park.

Jeremy and Louis, musician and professionally unemployed:

Jeremy: When reading stories about Syria. I mean you read what’s happening there and you think, well there’s injustice here but, you know, I’m pretty free.

Louis: When you’re broke and you meet a new girl and you get a spark of hope even though you have no reason.

How often do you get to do that?

Louis: I have a girlfriend now. So, like, maybe once a month (laughs).

Is freedom free?

Jeremy: It costs a buck o’five. Team America!

Louis: Freedom is only free when you’re broke.

When did you feel most free in your life?

Louis: I think it was when I ran away. I was like six, nothing serious, just ran away and then it got dark and then I realized I couldn’t run away anymore so I went home. I think that was the moment I realized I wasn’t free.

Jeremy: I used to run a lot when I was a kid. I would just run like a maniac all the time. Now I get out of breath when I run a block.

Louis: Actually I was on tour in Hong Kong and I was feeling a strong feeling of freedom. I was like, “We don’t have to go back, we’re in China!”

What is the most free place on Earth?

Louis: The moon, but that’s not on Earth.

Jeremy: Probably Antarctica. Similar concept, I guess. Somewhere desolate and unimpeded by humans.

Kate, customer service agent for an airline: When I’m swimming. It’s usually in a circumstance where it’s against the rules like skinny dipping or breaking into pools.

How often do you get to do that?

Just in the summer but frequently.

Is freedom free?

I think you can have personal freedom. There can be restrictions put on you but you always have freedom of thought. So there’s always your mind.

When did you feel most free in your life?

Hitchhiking across Canada. I hitchhiked from Banff to Calgary and then hitchhiked back. Spent a couple days with a trucker named Bob, he bought me ice cream. He was a nice guy.

Why was that so freeing?

Because I never knew what was going to happen each day. I was completely just throwing everything to the wind.

So freedom is tied in with the unpredictable?

Yeah, absolutely. I think so. That what makes freedom magical, when you’re not tied into these restrictions that people put around you.

Where is the freest place on Earth?

Paris. The French are pretty laid back.

Are you free right now?

Yeah. I just got off work, it’s sunny out, I got my bike. I can go anywhere.