Free as a Bird

America. Land of the free. The symbol of freedom? The bald eagle. It's often seen that birds are as free as you can be. The thing is though, it's not as simple as it seems for birds to be free. Allow me to explain.

First things first: I'm not immediately alluding to a bird in a cage. That would be too easy. There are a lot of things that we don't think about when we see a bird flying through the skies above our heads, seemingly free to roam wherever they please. Birds really have to put in a lot of effort to display such a wondrous image of total free will. With every flap of a bird's wings, they have gravity actively dragging them back down towards the earth. Air resistance is like a nagging hand, pushing them back against the direction in which they want to go. All of these factors, and the only way a bird can do what they want to do is to keep fighting forward, against all the odds that are actively working against them.

Here is the thing that crossed my mind thinking of the valiant effort birds put into their freedom: you have to work hard to be free. There really is no other way to be free. You have to constantly fight against all of the odds. Otherwise, gravity will bring you to your knees, and the winds will beat against you, knocking you down with no remorse. Simply because that is the natural way. We didn't make it here sitting around hoping for a miracle, a savior, or a handout. We took every opportunity we could find, got ahead of the competition, stood against the odds, and persevered our way to the tops of the mountains, through the lows of the valleys, and across raging seas. Simply to find our freedom.

You can never stop fighting. You can never expect anyone to pick up the sword and fight for you. Every confrontation and battle you come across is yours and yours alone to fight. There is no guarantee that anyone is coming to the rescue. You have to keep moving forward, and only you can make that decision, that call to choose freedom over captivity. A flightless bird is soon consumed by the snakes, and perhaps being stuck in a cage could be a worse fate still, doomed to watch the skies that you once flew, until you perish in exchange for the false sense of security that comes from the hand that feeds. So keep fighting on.

My name is UpL8, and being UpL8 Feels Gr8