We soar despite the chains

As what's left of wilderness springs back to life around us -

Wait a minute, that's an interesting thought, B.W. - I began the above the sentence "As what's left of nature springs back ..." and backed up to replace the word nature with wilderness. That's part of the problem, isn't it, our first instinct is to deny that humans are part of nature - that beaver dams and bee hives and skyscrapers aren't all part of how we various species make tools and shelter out of what we find in the wilderness?

Anyway.

As what's left of wilderness springs back to life around us, I'm sensing a shift in some of my familiar haunts on our little Web. Those who aren't increasingly agitated about what's going on in the world are increasingly withdrawn, almost as if they're wondering if the hiding places from the world are shrinking; still others like me are both. Some days I'm withdrawn, some days I'm agitated. (Pardon me for a second, I have to shift my chair - Big Brother wants to be able to see what I'm writing from over my shoulder.)

Maybe it's always like this and I haven't noticed. Maybe we're reacting to the increasing signs that people are happy with coercive and intrusive rulers, fitting themselves with designer chains and fleeing in horror from the concepts enshrined in our documents of freedom: The press can say anything it wants about Our Leader? Ewwwww, how gross. I have the right to own weapons - why would anyone want to? If someone's arrested he's presumed innocent and the prosecutor has to prove he's not - what's the point?

Last summer I learned a little ditty that I can hum to myself when the world starts closing in, and a little reflection about the song tend to restore my calm. Most of you will recognize the song immediately, as those who find what I have to say interesting are often fans of Firefly.

"Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand - I don't care, I'm still free, You can't take the sky from me." It doesn't matter what external forces come to bear against someone who is free - even isolation, seizure of property and imprisonment cannot change the internal ticking of liberty.

"Take me out to the black, tell 'em I ain't coming back - Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me." Whatever violence you perpetrate against free people, when their hearts stop they will be the corpses of free people. No state can take liberty away from people - bury them in rules and regulations and laws, slap them down or jail them when they dare object, but inside their skins, they retain their freedom. The guardians of the state may herd us physically into line, but our souls are as free as the air. Powerful as the state may seem, it can't take the sky away.

"There's no place I can be since I found serenity - You can't take the sky from me." This line is about the freedom to fly a spaceship named Serenity - yeah, right. It's about the serenity that flows through your heart and supercharges your mind when the truth of that seven-word refrain sinks in: No one can take the sky from you. Embrace your freedom and you'll be free until your last breath, whether it comes later today or 80 years from now.