FREE* As in freedom

My church is starting a new series called Free, so I'm totally on a "freedom" kick right now. It's such an over-used term, especially in America, but what the heck does it really mean? Does it mean being able to pursue whatever path, without judgment and reproach? Or does it deal more with the internal state of thing? With the relationship between our internal sense and our outward persona? What role does our faith play in helping us unlock its door?

::le sigh:: Trying to understand what freedom means in absolute...what it can mean in my life, is no simple feat. So, until I get some better answers, here's a little piece by famous Ohioan Rita Dove, to noddle your brain on:-)

In this poem, Dove describes freedom more as outward eccentricity, without really touching on the cosmic question of how we are to perceive it. None the less, it's a fantastic read! With lines like, "she who has brought mercy back into the streets/ and will not retire politely to the potter's field," what's not to love?

Be sure to read this one slowly...and savor the words!

Lady Freedom Among Us
BY Rita Dove

don't lower your eyes
or stare straight ahead to where
you think you ought to be going
don't mutter oh no
not another one
get a job fly a kite
go bury a bone
with her oldfashioned sandals
with her leaden skirts
with her stained cheeks and whiskers and
heaped up trinkets


she has risen among us in blunt reproach
she has fitted her hair under a hand-me-down cap
and spruced it up with feathers and stars
slung over her shoulder she bears
the rainbowed layers of charity and murmurs
all of you even the least of you
don't cross to the other side of the square
don't think another item to fit on a
tourist's agenda
consider her drenched gaze her shining brow
she who has brought mercy back into the streets
and will not retire politely to the potter's field
having assumed the thick skin of this town
its gritted exhaust its sunscorch and blear
she rests in her weathered plumage
bigboned resolute

don't think you can ever forget her
don't even try
she's not going to budge
no choice but to grant her space
crown her with sky
for she is one of the many
and she is each of us

© Rita Dove. From On the Bus With Rosa Parks (W.W. Norton & Company).