Peter M. Rojcewicz, PhD

Bainbridge Island, WA

I find the thoughts of poet David Whyte on ‘freedom’ as necessarily compensatory to today’s widespread association with radical personal autonomy:

“Today, ‘freedom’ tends to mean lack of constraint and therefore, lack of relationship. One is held to be most free when ‘nobody can tell me what to do’ – and ‘I can do what I want.’ This implies a person is most free when least connected with others and the larger community of beings within which humanity finds our place.”

Holding such a view of freedom fragments the most creative, and unique aspects of one’s intrinsic being. It causes an ontological splintering of one’s personal ‘genius’. The word ‘genius’ is from the Latin and refers to the spirit of a place that renders it unutterably itself. One’s inherent ‘genius’ is the embodiment of one’s unique spirit in creative engagement with the world. Whyte’s position implies that people are truly free only when connected with others and the community of human and more-than-human world. Freedom is consubstantial with relational care and understanding of others.