Friday, February 27, 2009

FREEDOM IS NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE

Watching an old fave, Kris Kristoffersen, on Colbert Nation this morning I was struck once again by the Zen beauty of his simple truth, “Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose.”

The assumption of ownership is reliance on permanence in defiance of the natural changes constantly occurring within and without us. It is the most debilitating element in the myth of any population to reach a level that is called civilized. Whether granted by god, government or promises from friends, the added vigilance against betrayal or theft by others is only the tip of the ill effect that poisons our world view.

We are owned by our possessions through our growing addictive fears of being inadequate to return to a projection of a tomorrow without them. The less we clutch, the more we become aware the essentials remain, always within us, enabling us to caress the variety of the phenomenal world as they pass through our life, or linger because some find it comfortable there. Free, you might say.


A wisdom emergent through aging
Finally grokking what was intuitive at birth
Now etched clearly by the acid lessons
Culture’s artificial contradictory restrictions are
On the daily evidence of nature's constant change
Getting down to the ancient grain of DNA.
Does the worm Ouroboros recognize his tail
So twisted have learned definitions made his tale?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

All that you take with you is your consciousness, if anything at all. Material wealth amounts to nothing at all.

Yodood said...

That's the point: To a bean counter a hill of beans is a mountain.

Does consciousness go anywhere with a you that claims it. I do my consciousness no more than I do the music that flows through me and the flute on the air evoked out of and through us.

Lee Ann said...

That's beautiful. You have articulated exactly the amorphous thought that I haven't been able to grab onto lately when thinking about why conservative republicans are so different from me. And the fear thing.....is huge

Yodood said...

Hi, Lee Ann,
Thanks for weighing in.

Anonymous said...

When I am conversing with you, where is my consciousness? It is here, it goes nowhere. When I am playing a simulation on my computer, where is my consciousness? When the simulation ends, where does it go?

wv: "citers"

Garth said...

Freedom: the great commercial myth; the justification for endless war and the second most misuded word in politics.

troutsky said...

Hey, you should check this guy out, blog.kulturcritic.com It is academic but well written and is right in tune with your message.