Freedom, cut me loose

A message from our newsletter

by Lesley Curtis, Ph.D.

In the United States, today is a day that we celebrate our country’s Declaration of Independence from its colonizing power. This year, as with many before, a lot of people do not feel like celebrating.

As an academic, I could tell you lots of stories about the concept of nation, how humans tend to use it to categorize themselves and others, what has worked and what hasn’t in history as far as peaceful coexistence. But I don’t want to go into all of that. You’d certainly stop reading quickly. Instead, I want to talk about Beyoncé.

This summer, Beyoncé is touring the world claiming her southern, cowboy heritage, draping herself in the American flag, and stating proudly that you should “never ask permission for what already belongs to you.” It’s genius. And she’s doing work at a level that we can all contribute to. She’s changing what we call in French “l’imaginaire” - the broad common cultural conception of what’s possible. Instead of accepting something the way it is, she’s inserting herself into it and therefore transforming it. She’s saying: “why not me? What if I was never not part of this?”

I often read lamentations on social media about how hard it is to be okay at a time when things feel oppressive and harsh. There is a very normal and common tendency for us to match or mirror the experience of others in order to show care. Most of us are trained to do it so early in our lives that we have never not done it.

But, what’s powerful, is that when you actually allow yourself to be okay, to claim joy, to stand steady in the knowing of what already belongs to you, then you become a resource. Your okayness works at the level of the imaginary—that’s where seeds grow.

What is it to be free now?

“If I could not be peaceful in the midst of danger, then the kind of peace I might have in simpler times is meaningless.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

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Photo by Luke Stackpoole