On Freedom

And an orator said,
“Speak to us of Freedom."
And he answered:
At the city gate and by
your fireside I have seen
you prostrate yourself and
worship your own freedom
Even as slaves humble
themselves before a tyrant
and praise him though
he slays them.
Ay, in the grove of the temple
and in the shadow of the citadel
I have seen the freest among
you wear their freedom
as a yoke and a handcuff.
And my heart bled within me;
for you can only be free when
even the desire of seeking
freedom becomes a harness
to you, and when you cease
to speak of freedom as
a goal and a fulfillment.
You shall be free indeed
when your days are not
without a care nor your
nights without a want
and a grief
But rather when these
things girdle your life
and yet you rise above
them naked and unbound.
And how shall you rise
beyond your days and
nights unless you break
the chains which you at
the dawn of your
understanding have
fastened around
your noon hour?
In truth that which you
call freedom is the
strongest of these chains,
though its links glitter in
the sun and dazzle the eyes.
And what is it but fragments
of your own self you would
discard that you may
become free?
If it is an unjust law you
would abolish, that law
was written with your
own hand upon
your own forehead.
You cannot erase it by
burning your law books
nor by washing the
foreheads of your judges,
though you pour the
sea upon them.
And if it is a despot
you would dethrone,
see first that his throne
erected within you
is destroyed.
For how can a tyrant rule
the free and the proud,
but for a tyranny in their
own freedom and a
shame in their won pride?
And if it is a care you
would cast off, that
care has been chosen
by you rather than
imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you
would dispel, the seat
of that fear is in your
heart and not in the
hand of the feared.
Verily all things move
within your being in
constant half embrace,
the desired and the
dreaded, the repugnant
and the cherished, the
pursued and that which
you would escape.
These things move
within you as lights
and shadows in
pairs that cling.
And when the shadow
fades and is no more,
the light that lingers
becomes a shadow
to another light.
And thus your freedom
when it loses its fetters
becomes itself the fetter
of a greater freedom.

Khalil Gibran