Absolute liberty, not a Silver bullet

The cold winter is officially here in Beijing, accompanies by gust carrying the sand from Mongolia. The fallen leaves are now everywhere on the streets, and even the sun is out shining in the sky, it only gives little warmth to the earth. Somehow I have started my cave-in winter life, not much of a choice but a more comfortable way to deal with the harsh winter weather. Yes, the cave in life refers to things like watching DVD, reading books, drinking some hot tea and meeting friends at home or coffee shops for chat. Last Friday, I watched the movie “Bleu”, the first one of the three color trilogy. Blue, which stands for liberty, is the main topic of the movie. The central question is, do we want absolute liberty? Is that actually desirable? As much as all of us want it as basic human right, it is a double edged sword just like everything else. We want liberty, due to the fact we are born to be curious about the world we live in and we want to be free so we can enjoy the vast opportunity that life presents. However, absolute liberty means no attachment/string to anyone or anything, but is this what we really want? What about love, care and giving back?

I remember the time when I first went to Chicago - I was thousands miles away from my parents, friends from school time. Yes, at the beginning I was quite pleased by the fact that I was finally free (well, for the most part, I enjoyed the freedom of expression in a western country), but being completely free and not attached to the society is not really appealing sometimes. We all need an identity in the society and we want to belong to a community that we feel comfortable with. And most importantly, we want to be loved and cared, the things that really make life an enjoyable journey rather than a lonely voyage.

So we end up in the ongoing struggle between love and fear of losing love, freedom and discipline. And the modern world, not only provide the convenience and comfort of material life, but also present its immense opportunities to us. Very naturally, we get lost in the temptation land.

Well, someone might say, why try to figure out the directions? Just enjoy the ride!

But, the real happiness almost never comes from just being free and light as air, but from knowing what you do matters but it is affecting other people’s life. A good friend of mine ever said to me, that most of our pain, sadness, frustration is caused by caring too much about ourselves, once you have your mind focus more on the society and other less fortunate people, you will be happier.

I think he is definitely right about that. And I have to admit that I have done too little to give back to the society where I grow up. It should be my new year resolution for 2006.