MFSA062: Freedom Makes Me

Music For Small Audiences

It is nice to have options. Paralysis by analysis is a real thing, and sometimes less is more when it comes to trying to make a decision. The more wide open the future appears, the more fearful we can become about what it all means and what we should do about it. The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard suggests that freedom and possibility are the precursors of dread and fear, and in a lot of ways he is not wrong. Is anxiety really just the dizziness of freedom?

The human body is easy enough to understand, at least in the basic mechanical sense. The mind is a bit more difficult to come to terms with, at least partially because of its inherent inability to get out of its own way. The spirit is harder still to understand. An ambiguous power, the spirit links mind and body for better or for worse, in sickness and in health.

Making it worse, thinking, feeling and doing are each very different things. It is not enough to know what to do, even though knowing what to do is hard enough. We must also do. For this reason, a bit of nervous energy as a motivator is a good thing.