True Freedom

There’s Only One True Freedom … And, You Don’t Have it

“And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin’ to trade all the days, from this day to that , for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take … OUR FREEDOM. William Wallace (from the movie, Braveheart).

Freedom is a core narrative in this world. It ‘s a fundamental concept in South Africa. The narrative being to be free from the tyrannical Apartheid system that enslaved millions of our fellow citizens. And, now of course, to be free of the tyrannical bonds of the sharks of state capture.

There’s even a Freedom Charter that was adopted on 26 June 1955 at a Congress of the People in Kliptown.

It’s a noble document with the intent to set every citizen in South Africa up for success and to give them the freedom they so deserive. The Freedom Charter has the motherhood statements to make all our hearts sing with joy: The people shall govern. All national groups shall have equal rights. The people shall share in the county’s wealth. The land shall be shared amongst those who work it. All shall be equal before the law. All shall enjoy equal human rights. There shall be work and security. The doors of learning and of culture shall be opened. There shall be houses, security and comfort. There shall be peace and friendship.

“These freedoms we will fight for side by side, throughout our lives, until we have won our liberty.”

I wonder how these motherhoods, as pure as their intent is, have worked out for you?

I’d guess that freedom as a concept hasn’t really worked out for anybody on this planet. There’s always a constraint, a trade-off or an injustice.

No man, nor woman is ever truly free when it comes to matters of this world.

But, there is one freedom that we all have the choice to make.

And, that’s the choice to give up our lives with grace and gratitude when the time comes.

The rider to the deal is that the moment of our deaths are unbeknown to us.

The only question you have to ask is that after reading this piece of text would you be ready to meet your maker … in the next instant?

If you’re not ready … this instant, then it will be a sad state of affairs, won’t it? If your life is taken and not given, the core narrative will be regret and remorse … forever.

Thus, the only men and women that’ are truly free are those that are prepared to die right this second and have no regrets about how they lived. They have no fear of what they will miss out on in the future because they will know that whatever they’ve been given up until the moment has been more than their due. Just to get to play for a while, they’ve been blessed beyond any conception.

Therefore, the trick is for all of us to make the most of the moment we have right now. Let’s hug our children. Right any wrongs we may have caused. Reach out to those we have turned from. Learn, love and live fully. That’s the only way, really. That’s the only true freedom.

Jacques de Villiers helps organisations, professional speakers, authors and entrepreneurs triumph through: sales training, motivational speaking and consulting.