When we first chose July 4th to get married, we were young and thought it would be neat, besides it was the first Saturday after the end of June. We did not want to get married in June as so many other people did. I think we were very much taken with the idea of getting hitched on Independence Day. Benton and I thought that together we could be free to do the things we wanted to do. As with most young people we have learned that being free is an entirely different thing than we first thought.
Freedom is a big problem.
We are free to do what we want, but sometimes that seems like the problem. If we have nothing interesting to do with our freedom other than to be self-indulgent, to breathlessly fulfill our every desire, chasing after this and that, consuming, indulging, accumulating, that' s pretty pathetic. And yet, I believe that that describes many, many people today. Perhaps the problem is that our democracy has given us the freedom to get what we want, but has given us so little guidance in that which is worth having. That's the real key to freedom.