The price we pay

[dwwoelfel]

I recently read Paul Graham’s Having Kids. I loved the piece in its entirety, but a few sentences sparked something within me.

He wrote about what he missed about life when he was younger:

I remember perfectly well what life was like before.

Well enough to miss some things a lot,

…like the ability to take off for some other country at a moment’s notice.

I smiled with excitement when I read that. Yes! We have so much freedom.

But…there was a twist. In a few poetic sentences:

That was so great. Why did I never do that?

…most of the freedom I had before kids, I never used.

…I paid for it in loneliness, but I never used it.

Yes, yes. So much yes.

We have freedom. Yet we burden ourselves with faux responsibility or self-inflicted urgency.

Think about it: what feelings come to you, when you imagine doing something for no reason at all?

It can feel wrong on so many levels. Yet, where where are we hurrying too?

The time when we have real responsibility will come.

The time where we absolutely must focus on one thing, in one place, will come.

We’re already paying for the freedom we have. How can we embrace it?

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