Life of Pi Personal ReflectionLife of Pi – Yann Martel (p 18)”If you went to a home, kicked down the front door, chased the peoplewho lived there out into the street and said, “Go! You are free! Free as abird! Go! Go!”-do you think they would shout and dance for joy? Theywouldn’t. Birds are not free.
The people you’ve just evicted wouldsputter, “With what right do you throw us out? This is our home. We ownit. We have lived here for years. We’re calling the police, youscoundrel.
“””Don’t we say, “There’s no place like home”?”On a hot summer day, as you stand outside in the breeze, you’veprobably seen a bumblebee before. One of those big, clumsy, yellow andblack zebra striped insects. On a good year, they can be mistaken forbirds, in more than one sense. They are so free. They play in the windand rest peacefully on the flower that appeals to them the most, the pinkwild rose or the red honeysuckle; whichever is the color of the day.
Everyso often, you will see a bee swirl away in harmony with the liberty of thewind. But, “Birds are not free. ” Nor are bees. They do not just suddenlygrab hold of the veil of wind and ride for as long as they wish; there areinevitably things in their lives that must be done that are necessary forsurvival.
They return to their nest with the nectar they have secured fromthe days peaceful activities and in return the nest will grant themsecurity, companionship, and purpose. The world has evolved into such aplace where a bee simply could not survive on its’ own. In fact, I don’tthink there is a single organism out there that could survive in anentirety of freedom, as that would require “the absence of necessity,coercion, and constraint in choice or action”, and, when considered, thatis impossible. Often, society thinks of freedom as bliss, but in fact,freedom is an unattainable state. We find, as in the case of thebumblebee, that there is a joy to be found in limited freedom with roots orconnections to lay a foundation for life.
Canada is a free country, by definition. I have lived here all mylife and am thankful for its apparent freedom. You will often hear elderssay “we fought two world wars for our country’s freedom” and the youngsterswill say, “I can do what I want, it’s a free country”, but the definitionof freedom that allows us to qualify Canada as free is perhaps somewhatlenient. In reality, anybody has the choice to do anything, but we aresteered in directions by all sorts of factors.
You could classify thegovernment’s entire job as to influence its citizens, essentially foreveryone’s own good, but all the same, constraining their actions andchoices and guiding them in a particular direction. As well, every citizenhabituating Canada has basic requirements for life. There is not a humanalive without needs in their life. Whether it is the bare necessities,food, water, and sleep, needs are inherent and impose upon you, furtherdetracting from the autonomy in your life. I am not trying to say Canadais not a free country, we have a lot of liberties as citizens of this greatnation, but we certainly have restrictions imposed on us. This, however,does not stop us from being happy people.
Do you find many people that areunhappy because they cannot commit fraudulent activities, murder, orbecause they have to breathe? No. People need a little bit of societaldirection to maintain order and they have physical, social, andpsychological needs that need to be looked after to live, but they arestill content. This is the same with zoo and wild animals. They are notfree; they have different essentials in their life that are met indifferent ways yet they remain happy in their limited freedom.
Each time Istep out the door as a Canadian, I recognize the liberties that I have beengiven and simply the fact that I am allowed to move at my will allows me tofind pleasure in restricted freedom. Freedom is beautiful, but it’s important for everyone to have rootsand connections to give us a base. Most can call somewhere their home,perhaps the most basic, but also the most important root we have. From ourhomes, we run our lives.
Many of our needs are fulfilled there: cleaning,eating, sleeping, and for many, family. Sure, our obligation to our limitsus, but there is more to be gained than is there to be lost. If we turn tothe homeless, we can see what happens when you have no base in your life. The homeless of the world are free within reason in their worlds they dowhat they wish within the boundaries of necessities. But are homelesspeople generally people that you envy? No, because without that hub andfoundation in their life, they are unable to maintain a lot of the basicneeds of life.
Homeless people demonstrate the importance of connectionsbecause we see that something acting as the centre of your life gives you aplace to branch from and each subsequent connection gives you anotherresource that you can use from this hub. Amid the network that you havecreated with your connections, freedom allows you to choose your path andthey become a powerful entity. Freedom is something that people from all walks of life strive toattain in abundance, but there is a limit to how far you can go. Roots andconnections, which may seem to tie a person down, also serve as an integralpart of a functional life and lay the foundation for development in life. Together, they allow for success and happiness.
FamiliarityOur traditional sense of freedom is no longer validFor example, bees free to go where ever they wish, but they always returnhome to their nest, their home. What waits there for them? Is there anyindication of the unhappiness of a bee? Only when you threaten their home,the centre of their existenceFreedom has become being able to haveDefinition: the absence of necessity, coercion (to restrain or dominate byforce), or constraint in choice or actionWhat makes Canada a free country? Not because we can just do whatever wewantMovie where the bugs get confused because there is a twig in the way oftheir path
