Reconciliation 2 of 3

FREEDOM JOURNEY

A Homecoming Story

Humans, like other animals, assimilate information from their environment as they adjust these schemes of assimilation to better accommodate their environment. What makes humans unique in this process, however, is their capacity to create symbolic models of their environment that permits humans to mentally accommodate their environments, at least in part, without stepping out of their “mental space.” Discontinuity or non-being occurring in being, allows mental modeling to occur, and that brings us to another important by-product of b~b ~bb, the human experience of time. The time that so perplexed Parmenides, Augustine, and Kant naturally follows from the experience of b~b~bb, or the fleeting experience of past, present, present, present…..etc.

Temporality comes to us by way of our senses and by way of constructed, logically consistent, scientific models used to measure time. On an operational level, human time is merely a by-product of the discontinuity that follows from the experience of b~b~bb, but, so too, language, number, logic, and self-awareness is also a by-product of this experience. The human temporal moment then, carries within itself not one account of temporality i.e., the video time of sequential physical events; it also carries within itself “the center of action,” as Piaget calls it. Mind and identity are discovered in this “center of action,” (personal identity being that degree of permanence that we experience in the midst of constant flux). But, more importantly, the forward movement of knowledge is also discovered in this liberated and liberating space that gets called “time.”

We are born into a world of knowledge and knowing, and knowledge expands as a consequence of time, but the real throttle of this knowing process--the actualization of what is unique in human freedom, lies in our capacity to actualize our own non-being. Simply put, every time we ask a question we actualize in the question our own non-being. Whether we like it or not our knowledge expands, but when we ask a question we accelerate that expansion by detaching ourselves from being in our capacity as non-being in order to more fully appropriate the world around us. Our passive experience of time does not produce a great deal of knowledge, but because we bring the logical relationships implicit in freedom’s structure to bear on an event, we are free to create judgments (and the values which arise from those judgments) concerning the significance and probable cause of an event. These judgments are determined valid across a continuum that ranges from sensation divorced from theory, at one end, to sensation reinforced by the most advanced and respected scientific theory available. There are no guarantees that the answers we propose in response to our questions will match up with corresponding events, yet scientists have a pretty good track record when it comes to the discovery and confirmation of these answers. In experience that is not accountable to scientific confirmation, however, we determine, via our judgments and emotions, appropriate behavior. It is at this level of preferred behavior, this level of "willed consciousness participation" (as it is called by Owen Barfield), that we encounter our potential for the highest order of expressed freedom—our ethical and moral judgments. There is a way to understand the appropriateness of these kinds of judgments when they are understood from within the perspective of b~b~bb, but that digression will have to wait.

In brief, in our ability to step outside of our “mental space” (break with our past) and ask questions, we acquire the capacity to overcome the obstacles that restrict our freedom. When the step up to b~b~bb first occurred there was not much that separated humans from other animals, but after 100,000 years of actualizing freedom’s latent potential, we, the species Homo sapiens, are enjoying a wealth of freedom(s). The history of civilization records, albeit partially, the actualization of this “coming of age process.” To put this in the perspective of little miss—think of all the hard work and sacrifice that she put into her struggle to obtain her PhD.; her task accomplished, she was rewarded with emotional, psychological, and financial freedom. Winning our freedoms is never easy. It begins with an obstacle and, with hard work and some luck, it ends with more freedom. There is one certainty that is inescapable, however; freedom is the rock and we are all Sisyphus; and we remain as such until the end of the journey, the journey home.

The pictures above suggest that we might already be home. But, if that’s the case, then the meaning of “going home” evaporates. However, if we are able to appreciate our true identity then we are already home; and further, since all things intellectual and emotional are connected with this home, we will find freedom, beauty, and completeness there; and love, being that which liberates, will also be included in this homecoming experience. But, there are many of us who have not achieved a genuine appreciation for our true identity (I include myself here). For those of us who are moving in this direction, but are not quite there, we will celebrate our successes and try not to repeat our failures. As we progress, we will gain more personal freedom and, hopefully, we will help others do the same. We will do this, help others, because in the human dimension all share (some more, some less) the intuitive sensitivity and religiously felt compassion that flows through all love, caring, happiness, and reverence.