Are we really free?

The first time I watched the documentary film, “Minsan lang sila bata”, that was years back. I remember feeling so thankful that I am given the chance to enrich my knowledge through the school; together with it, is the sense of sympathy for these individuals whose youth has passed so rapidly that they weren’t able to savor the joy of their childhood.

Well, after watching this film once again, just the same old feeling with me but with one question bothering me…”Where is freedom? Can I still say that we are free?” Man is free when he practices his gift of choice, following the path towards his good and for the good of people around him. Freedom therefore is defined as liberty from the controls that serve as hindrances towards the act to be performed. Among the few and common controls that continue to suppress our exercise of freedom are social pressures, violence, fears, habits, sin, physical defects, etc. Everyday in our lives when face with these kind of dilemmas, we are actually free to choose and be committed on the decision we choose to follow. Freedom is a word easy to define but hard to conceptualize. Freedom is a difficult exercise especially when it involves the choice of doing what must and forsaking the other that is relatively important to you. Going into the film…

The issue in this film is poverty and the dilemma is whether child labor is justified. Work is important because the family needs income to be able to cope with poverty. Education is equally important and is the key to change one’s status in society. And the complication is that obedience is a value highly treasured by society. In this kind of picture, it seems that one has no other choice but to accept that the best thing to do is to labor and this is also what these unfortunate kids felt. Putting myself in their shoes, damn! Through the years, it must be hell for them! That wasn’t just labor, that was what I call ABUSE!

I might have a different definition of Labor, perhaps of the culture I came from and I beg you not to judge me. Labor is to work physically and mentally with great effort. From my view, labor is good in itself. In our culture, we are actually trained as young as we were to labor to satisfy our needs. Poverty was once an issue in our family and I don’t want to go back to that state. As with these kids, I might not have savored every joy of being a child, because young as we were our minds age rapidly. Work is not just necessary to satisfy my needs but for the needs of everybody in the family. Hard as how it seems but this is reality. And I chose to value obedience, understanding and hoping that it would do me good in the future. However, it differs from their situation because despite the difficulty we experienced, raising us to be independent individuals, our parents still are just behind us- ready to back up whenever they see that we could not make it. Thank God my parents are responsible!

Going back…Are we really free? I still believe that we are still free. We are capable to remove ourselves from the bondage of the obstacles around us. Our exercise of our freedom of choice is a practice that requires mastery. In my opinion, it is being able to control will to overcome passion so that we may be able to have control over our lives. A difficult yet possible practice that could be mastered by everyone!