Freedom: a Dance and a Discipline

Perhaps we sit around a fire, pass tequila,
or circle the chairs in the town hall,
or kneel in an airy church,
anything to bring us together.

And there, talk about the discipline of freedom,
and consider two forms of individualism:
conscientious or uncurbed, altruistic or maverick,
aggregate or egoistic, and ask:
what will help us grow?

Think of your darling.
Think of the things we relinquish for love,
or consequently tolerate,
in time, even embrace,
so to be, so to live, so to bloom.

How easy to traffic licence as freedom,
the sly addictions to self — the mercenary loyalty to a cell,
as a good, independent of common law,
of common good.

Freedom is the struggle to be good and to do good.
Freedom is the negative liberty, to work,
without hubris, without self-righteousness,
for the common good, especially
to protect the most vulnerable,
and those that care for them.

Freedom is also conscious of the temptation to impose,
arbitrarily,
the will of the majority upon the will of the minority.

As it is, a free society should work to protect
the right of an individual over his/her/their own body,
and,
an individual living in a free society should toil to protect
the right of the community: to wellbeing, to flourishing,
to gardening, to gathering around a warm fire,
passing the mulled wine of abundant peace.