“Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”  ― Horace Mann

I read the above title in my inbox today. I liked the sentiment so much that I appropriated it for this short essay. Here is my take on the same subject that ventures down a different path from that of the other author. I trust that he or she does not mind.

Freedom to me is many things. It is part goal, part pursuit, part action; it is part motive, part means, and part opportunity. It is a state of nirvana, a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, where we are released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth. It is something always to be sought but never to be reached—not in this lifetime.

We see glimpses of it in a sunset, in a blossoming flower, in the eyes of a child; we feel it in a cooling breeze, or when it rains, or when someone smiles for any reason, or for no reason at all. It is omnipresent when we see excellence, when we embrace our God-given talents and push them to their limits. We hear it in the roar of the mighty ocean, or in the quiet of a summer’s night. It is us doing, thinking, planning, understanding, caring, giving, or praying. It is a heartbeat, a whisper, a kind act; it is purpose-driven, an unrelenting drive for justice. It is all these things and more.

Although we cannot touch it, see it, or feel it, it nevertheless is something to be cherished—perhaps above all else. It is fair to ask: What would we be without it?

We dare not take it lightly. We dare not abandon it. We must defend it. It holds our hopes and our dreams, our now, and our future. It cannot co-exist with slavery, or with cowardice, or with hate. For if we abandon freedom, we give in to all those conditions that are ever present to consume it. It is the most honored gift we can give ourselves, and the only gift we can truly give to others.

Before we can leave this world with our integrity intact, we must pass it on. But it is never premature to pass it on today, and thus pay it forward, in gratitude to all who came before us, to all who honor it today, and to all those coming so that they, too, can know what it means to reach for their star and find there are no obstacles in their way. Only then dare we say we have won some small victory for humanity.