Wherever we want to go, we go. That’s what a ship is, you know. It’s not just a keel and hull and a deck and sails. That’s what a ship needs. But what a ship is . . . what the Black Pearl really is . . . is freedom —Captain Jack Sparrow
Freedom. What a romantic idea and rational concept. That is what Emet represents: freedom.
I suppose it is possible to be free on land. There is something about the sea, however, that has always called me. It is free, the great wide openness of it. With the wind and the water, I can travel to any place on the earth . . . freely.
Freedom, though, is more than the ability go wherever the heart may take us. That is but a small facet of the freedom that Emet represents. I find it hard to put into words. It is about living freely. Not “living” in the normal modern sense of the word, but living as in becoming alive. Being freely alive. Living with conviction. Living deliberately. Living thoughtfully. Living lovingly. Living simply. To do those things, you have to remove the shackles that bind you in place. Not just physically, but also emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. To gain everything, you must be willing to give up everything.
All you have to do is choose.
The freedom of thought, of choice, is the greatest freedom of all. It, however, is the most easily stolen freedom. You can’t see it being taken. Its theft doesn’t manifest itself as a smaller balance in a ledger. It can’t be locked in a safe. There are signs, however small and faint, that it is slowly being spirited away from you. You must simply look inside yourself. You must then exercise the choice to think freely. Free of fear. Free of hate. Free of confusion. Free of limitations. Free of deceit. Free of constraint.
Conviction attaches only to what appears as truth to each of us in our own hearts. — Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Freedom
In reality, freedom only exists in our minds and hearts. In those hallowed places, we can be truly free unless and until we choose not to be. (I will admit, that being free of mind and heart is much easier in paradise.)
And that’s it: for me, Emet is a conviction. A truth. And in that, I find freedom.