What's True Freedom?

Despite the fact that yesterday was the 4th of July, (not today) there are STILL a gazillion fireworks going off right now in my parent's neighborhood. It's insanely loud and my kids are complaining about it. The fact that they're complaining about the noise and not that they aren't outside lighting sparklers is how I know those kids are actually really tired. As for me though, I don't mind the noise so much, but it makes me wonder how loud being in a war zone in Iraq or Afghanistan must be.

Aren't we all so lucky that we most likely will never have to experience such a thing as a war zone? (Knock on wood, right?)

I thought a lot about those soldiers fighting for "freedom" yesterday. I'm sure some of my preoccupation might have been due to my spending time with my sister. She was in the army and I remember worrying constantly that she wouldn't come home. I worried I wouldn't get to tease her again about being short or having a major bootay years before J. Lo and Kim Kardashian made it cool. I worried I'd never get to harass her again about ending her cancer stick habit... So I compensated by cutting out every Surgeon General's warning I could find in magazines (dozens) and putting them in an envelope and mailing them to where she was stationed.

I worried I'd never get to give her a hug again or tell her I love her.

And so yesterday, as I hung out with her at her husband's family reunion, I thought about how many of our military families received notification on Independence Day of the death of their son or daughter, their husband or wife, their sister or brother.

Will those families ever look at the concept of freedom the same?

Our selfish world believes that true freedom is the ability to do whatever you want, when you want. How many times have I listened to Kanye West sing, " Excuse Me, is you saying something?
Uh, uh, you can't tell me nothing!" Yeah, listening to no one and doing whatever you want is supposed to be freedom.

Sometimes I wonder if the vast majority of people even really want to know the truth. I think our media doesn't report too much on this war because, well, do we really want to hear about it? It's much easier to just believe we're all free to do what we each want. Wreck the environment, eat too much, go to war for invisible weapons of mass destruction...

Even Chase credit cards tells us we can do whatever we want in their commercials. Credit card companies are soooo good at making us feel like the world is our oyster and we can get and do whatever we want. They make us say, "What I want to do is go charge up this credit card at Sephora! Who cares if I have the money to pay."

Yeah, that's supposed to be freedom. My four year-old believes this sometimes too. He believes he should get pretty much whatever he wants, when he wants it, and no matter the cost to anyone else.

All the rest of us should know better.

I hope those folks that are, 24 hours later, still celebrating this nation's independence, have taken a moment to remember those who've given their lives for us. I hope the fireworks aren't just about a pretty cascade of sparks raining down on us.

But for the grace of God, that could be us over in Iraq or Afghanistan, thinking about freedom and what it really means.