Are We Really Free?

Are we really free?  At first glance, we appear to be.  However, if we look further into our decisions and why we make them, it is obvious that we are not entirely free.   Numerous influences and pressures come at us all the time and we cannot stop them.  They are natural and sometimes beneficial to us.  Even though they are commonly thought of as being oppressive this is not always the case.

Parents want their children to do well in life and have more wealth and opportunity than they had.  They do not want to suck their children’s dreams out of their lives; they just want to make sure that these dreams are realistic and not harmful to them.  Parents do not want to see their children struggle to make a living.  They simply want their offspring to be happy and be able to provide their children with even better means to accomplish their dreams.

Peers usually have good intentions behind their advice to friends, although sometimes their motives are not so pure.  Good friends mean well and want their friends to succeed at whatever their dreams may be.  They should not want to pull their friend down in any way even if it means having to part ways temporarily or permanently.  Friendships as well as other relationships such as romantic are a means of support because we naturally have the need to connect to others.  They are not bad as long as they are healthy and not draining on the participants.  When they become burdens, it is the responsibility of the people in the relationship to nourish it back to health or stop interacting with each other.

The media also influences us every day.  We cannot get away from it.  Unlike the two previous sources of influences, the media has no personal attachment to its recipients.  It is not always negative, yet that is the common stereotype.  We must filter what we hear from others because what we allow ourselves to think will eventually become what we believe.  Our discernment could possibly be one of the most important skills we can attain because it guarantees what freedom we have by giving us the ability to choose what we think to be true.  No matter what others say, we must keep our dreams in sight and not lose hope of achieving them.