Freedom

I've been thinking a lot lately about what a "lucky" country we live in. We have freedom. Freedom of choice. This is something that is a bizarre concept for some cultures - and yet we take it for granted all too often.

I have the freedom of choice about what to wear, who I can marry ( to a degree I know) , whether I chose to have a religion or not, freedom of information, the freedom to experience different nationalities and cultures and belief systems. Unlike others ;who know nothing other than what they are born into ~ they have no choice.

We are very quick to judge other cultures, races, religions and creeds without thinking about what it must be like to be born into them. We forget that some of them know nothing about choice. Or freedom. They only know what they know - and to them, that is their reality. An assumption can be made that to them, it is every ones reality. They know no better. So who are we to judge? Who are we to be intolerant?


I recently experienced a dialogue of someone born into a life and belief system  that is SO far from my reality that it is hard to accept as anything other than cruel and wrong. However to this man, it was his reality. He explained he knew nothing other than this way of thinking. That when you are born into it and surrounded by it, you just live it because you know nothing else - you have nothing to compare it to. If you constantly experience and are surrounded by hatred and bitterness - then you know only that. If you have never experienced love or acceptance or peace or grace or any of the fundamental elements of human kindness, then how can you know them? How can we judge that?

We do this too, in our own way. Because we have freedom - of choice, information and technology, we find it hard to accept that it's not every one's reality.We assume that everyone has the same experiences and opportunities. How wrong we are. Maybe we don't assume, we forget? Or maybe we just don't think about it at all?


While I'm not condoning belief systems that are destructive and immoral, I try to see things from a different perspective before making judgements. For while I was lucky enough to be born into freedom, others aren't.


I guess it comes back to the tolerance I talked about in a previous post. Tolerance is different to acceptance - and I think this is also something that we need to distinguish between. You can tolerate anothers beliefs without accepting them .It's about understanding before judging.

Tolerance could perhaps been seen as the ability to disagree with something, yet understand it and respect it's place in the grand scheme of things? What are your thoughts?


Yours in Peace

Danni xx