Without Freedom, Nothing Else Has Meaning
Guard it jealously if you’ve got it; fight for it fiercely if you don’t
If there’s one notion that has animated me since my earliest days, it’s freedom. Pure and simple. Not being constrained. Not being told what to do.
When I was two (as the story goes), one day, I was with my family in a shopping mall, doing the standard family at a shopping mall thing. As my parents and older brother were settling in at a table in the food court to enjoy an Orange Julius, their attention momentarily elsewhere, I saw my chance and made a beeline straight for the exits.
My mom, being the ever-watchful, loving mother that she is, noticed immediately, looking on with mounting concern as I continued toddling my way down the terrazzo. Just as she was about to go fetch me, my dad called her off. “Hold up a sec. Let’s see how far he goes before he looks back. He’s gotta stop eventually.”
Yeah right, Paps. Forget about it. I was out of there, on the lam, no regrets, no looking back. (Mom hurriedly retrieved me shortly thereafter.)
When I was fifteen, I started showing up at the Friday night keggers in the woods that were the standard for my high school. A big bonfire of stolen pallets, a bunch of scruffy kids in jeans and flannels, trying to look…
