I would suggest that the breeze of Freedom can lift us up—just as the wind of support can help us sustain our journey toward personal achievement. The breeze can help us achieve something that was once thought to be unattainable. We can help manage or solve intractable problems. Our work can become innovative–even ground-breaking. At the very least, this breeze can nudge us to operate a bit outside our usual comfort zone and assume a new repertoire of actions. Yet, the question I have just posed lingers: is the breeze of Freedom really enough?
I would suggest that there is much more to this story about a lifting breeze (or perhaps even wind beneath our wings). We must acknowledge that the wind beneath our wings is needed because we are facing major challenges in our life and work. Without this additional support, we are just flapping our wings and going nowhere (or are falling to the ground). Something more is also needed with regard to Freedom. I propose that the breeze of freedom must be accompanied by the breeze of courage. It also must be accompanied by the persistent breeze of commitment. I believe that my colleague who has left China was assisted by her own courage in leaving family and work in China to find freedom in a new land. She was assisted as well by her commitment to conduct her professional practices without governmental restrictions.
The internally-generate breeze of courage and breeze of commitment are needed if we are to sustain a course of action that comes with many barriers (both from inside our self and from outside our self). The barriers were numerous for my colleague from China. They are numerous for all of us living in mid-21st Century societies. It is not easy to avail ourselves of freedom’s opportunity to think slowly and make thoughtful choices. It is often a struggle to find and engage our true and authentic voice. We find it difficult to empathize with other people—especially when they live on the other side of a polarized community. And we confront a host of barriers when trying to establish and maintain sanctuaries, temporary systems and collateral organizations. It is not easy to find safety alongside freedom in mid-21st Century life.
Personal courage and commitment are required. Yet, they are not easier achieved or maintained. The question thus becomes: how do we find courage and how do we embrace commitment in a persistent manner? This is much too big a question to be addressed fully in this essay. I am focusing on freedom—which is certainly a big enough topic for any one essay (even an entire book). However, I would suggest that personal courage and commitment arrive in part from what we inherit. We can look back in time at what our ancestors have taught us. These ancestors can be related to us, or they can be noted figures in history. I can point to the recent book written by Jon Meacham (2022), an esteemed American historian. He considers what we might learn from Abraham Lincoln if he were alive today. The lessons to be learned are relevant since Lincoln also lived and led in a time of major polarization.
I would point to another United States president, James Garfield. He is less well-known (or revered) than Lincoln; however, he is one of my distant relatives. I might, therefore, be amenable in particular to lessons provided by Garfield based on the words he spoke and actions he took. Addressing many of the same societal issues as Lincoln, Garfield found a way to be free in what he said and did—in spite of the negative consequences that his words and deeds might yield. Garfield found courage and sustained commitment in the actions he took.
