freedom

In American Heritage professor H has been discussing the idea that the more choices you have the more freedom you have. Freedom, something that we Americans take pride in having, but why do we have it. What makes us so different? Why did the Founding Fathers feel this was so important? In class we have continually returned to this example:
Imagine that you walk into a grocery store and there is only one brand of spaghetti sauce on the shelf, better yet, there is only one can of spaghetti sauce left in all of the store you do not have the freedom to chose what type of spaghetti sauce you want.
Now if you really hate I mean hate, like you would rather vomit than have to eat that brand of spaghetti sauce, and you need spaghetti sauce that night for a dinner party what would you logically do? I don’t know about you but I would go to another store and buy the spaghetti sauce that I want. Can you not see the irony though? Simply having the option of going to another store is freedom.
Ok, now imagine that you walk into the other store looking for spaghetti sauce that you like. There on the shelves are hundreds of spaghetti sauces; big tomato chunks, baby diced tomato, garlic or onion chunks. Besides being a little overwhelmed by the hundreds of spaghetti sauces that you did not even know existed you now have lots of options, and in turn you have more freedom.
Not only do you get to chose what brand of you want, but how many should you get? Should you mix brands? Should you get enough only for tonight or some cans for storage? These are all of the questions that you need to answer. You might pass there in the aisle and gather date; how much money you have, how many guests you are having, how much those guest might eat, is any one you invited allergic to something in the sauce. Although these method of collecting data is centered around asking more questions there are concrete answers to these questions that help you decided what you want.
Now that you have settled on what type of spaghetti sauce you want, and how much you are going to get you have to buy it. You can not just stand there all night and all day repeating in your mind what type of sauce you want, but you actually have to purchase it and go through the action.
Simple, but I am not limiting this logical approach to spaghetti sauce things. Making choices on what type of religion you want to associate with, what classes you want to take next semester, deciding a major, getting a house, getting married, going on a mission, taking that job opportunity, the list of life determining questions seems endless, and really depends on were we are in life.
I know that sometimes I feel like I am stuck in one store with the spaghetti sauce that makes me want to vomit, and there are no other choices. The hardest decisions seem to be when you have one spaghetti sauce that you love in your left hand and one that you love just as much in your right hand, but you can only chose one of them.
In Robert Frost’s poem The Road not taken a line I typically over look is “That has made all of the difference,” While turning this line over in my mind, and listening to my professor talk about the Declaration of Independence I realized “that has made all of the difference,” It is important to momentarily take away the line “I took the road less traveled by,” from Robert Frost’s poem. If you repeat the poem in your mind unaware of what path the author acutely took the principle that no matter which path you continue on will make all the difference emerges. Sighing the Declaration of Independence risked the lives, fortunes, and honor of all those men and their families. Looking back it is easy to see the difference that little piece of paper made, but in the vital moment they were risking every thing.
In my life there are choices when I am risking everything. Imagine how dull and unproductive life would be without these choices… there would be no freedom. What I have learned in my American Heritage class is not to be afraid of these choices, but to make them. Once I have settled on something I need to put Singh my name, and commit to it. If I am continually striving for good things, and my motives are pure there is no logical way that I can make the wrong choice as long as I am focused to that ideal. There are choices, freedom, and action; they all interconnect and committee is involved in all of them, “that (will) make all the difference.”