rberk
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Freedom - 2009/08/16 04:08
Freedom is a hot topic in the Camphill community where I live.
Our lifestyle is such that six out of seven days a week, coworkers are “on”: available to support individuals, houses and workshops, or the community at large.
That one precious day when one is expected to be completely off the radar—unavailable for lunch cooking, weed pulling, homework helping, room cleaning, group singing, van driving, yogurt making, bread baking, meeting note-taking, or festival planning—that day is commonly referred to as one’s “free day.”
I have never liked this characterization and the implication it carries.
If I am free one day of the week, what does that make me throughout the remaining six days?
I am certainly not here against my will.
When I made the choice to live within the community framework of Camphill, I understood that it would require conscious, active participation, not on a nine-to-five timeframe, but on an ongoing, constant basis.
It means that you don’t always look your best when rolling into a meeting on Monday mornings. It means that sometimes you’re not always as patient as you’d like to be in frustrating situations. It means that sometimes people catch glimpses of yourself that you’d never dream of revealing at a nine-to-five workplace.
This, I’ve heard spoken many times, is part of what makes us a community.
The “day off” (as I prefer to think of it) is meant to be an opportunity to recharge batteries, catch up on work and sleep, or spend time with loved ones who don’t live within Camphill borders. So what are we really saying when we call our day of scheduled time a “free day?” Are we accidentally associating freedom with a lack of responsibility to others?
It’s a strange phenomenon that on that one day of expected invisibility, if I were to appear before breakfast to attend Morning Circle, or show up around the table for dinner in my own home, inevitably, someone would cry in surprise: “But you’re free today, Rachel!”
Yes, I am free today.
I was free yesterday, and if I can manage, I will be free tomorrow as well.
In freedom I choose to be fully present, to be conscious of my actions and active in my relationships, even when I’m not required to be. In freedom I made a decision to interlink myself with a community of individuals that do, in one way or another, depend on me as I depend on them. And when I wake up in the morning, I have the option of recommitting myself, or not, to these people and this lifestyle.
All of us, whether in the extreme environment of an intentional community or not, experience this interconnectedness, experience the necessity of being responsible for one another. Sometimes the burden is heavy and the outer picture isn’t so pretty. So what do we need to do to face our colleagues and our tasks with the same level of warmth and enthusiasm as though it was our first day on the job? What would it take to make each and every day a free day?
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