Knowledge is Freedom

She stands on the end of the dock and looks out at the calm, early morning lake.  The others have not woken up yet so she stands there alone.  She stands there alone while the loons call to one another and the songbirds welcome the Sun and she stands there alone.

She feels the warmth of the rising Sun on her face and she knows that the coolness in the air will be gone within a few hours, replaced by a humidity Minnesotans know well and dread.  Her soul will not let her mind be still.  The morning is calm, but her mind is not.

Clarity lifts her soul and her mind reluctantly realizes it must follow, although the path will not be without pain.  Her life is not what it was meant to be and this day there is no turning back; a new path must be followed or never dreamt of again.

All she wants is freedom.  Freedom to be, to do, to live.  For too long she has not been free.  Living under the control of another, questioning how she lost herself.  Screaming in silence to a world that does not seem to recognize that another has captured her spirit.

She flourishes at work, gregarious with an ever-present smile on her face.  But 4:30 always arrives and he will be waiting outside to take her home.  While others count down hours to the weekend, she counts down hours on the weekend until Monday morning.

She stands there alone while the others are sleeping.  She stands there alone as her spirit gains strength and her mind grows calm.  Her life cannot continue on this way.  It simply cannot, should not and will not continue this way.  This was not the life she had planned. 

She knows her next steps will be difficult, but not impossible.  She knows she will not stand alone when she says farewell to her spirit’s captor; the women who went before her to fight for her rights to be an independent woman will stand with her.

Her mother was never given the same chance of freedom.  Bound to another by a lack of education and marketable skills.  Bound to another through need of financial security.  Bound to another through mortgages and car payments and credit cards.

She is not her mother though.  She has been given an education and the tools necessary to survive on her own.  She and other women her age have been taught that their minds are sharp, that math and science aren’t just for boys and that women do not need a man to provide.

She stands there alone on that sunny Independence Day and she chooses freedom.  Freedom that tastes like foofy pink cotton candy on a stick from the County Fair.  Freedom that years later will be shared with another independence-loving spirit. 

Freedom that is gained from knowledge of the mind and that is nourished by the soul.