This afternoon as my younger daughter, my son, and I were sitting around the kitchen in various states of homework, my son made a fascinating observation.
The Boy: "Mom. (Mom. Mom. Mom. Hey, Mommie... Mom. Mom!)"
Me: "Did you say something?" (In my defense, I was concentrating really, really hard!)
The Boy: "Guess how many definitions there are in the dictionary for the word 'free'. Guess. You'll never guess. Just 'free' with no prefixes or suffixes or anything... Guess!"
Me: "'Free'? Um, I don't know. You should probably just tell me, MarcE."
The Boy: "Nineteen! Look, it covers most of this page and all of the next one."
That got my attention. Nineteen?! Really?
That is fascinating. Partly because it captured the attention of a ten year old, and partly because I never knew such a little word carried so much weight. Hmmmm...
I wanted to look at "free" a little closer, so I typed it into the "Bing" search engine to see what amazing wisdom I would get from the information superhighway. I had visions of deep thoughts on free speech, free will, freewriting, free to be you and me, and all sorts of educational and/ or profound insight on what it is to be free.
What I got back was 4.7 billion offers of free stuff that, as we all know, isn't really free. What a letdown! Where's the wisdom I was searching for? I surely was not looking to be marketed to...
Rather than explain and pontificate on what I think the most relevant of the 19 definitions is to me, I'll leave that hanging and ask you, my (few) loyal readers: What do you think of when you hear the word "free"?
Maybe I'm too easily fascinated, but I really like that this small conversation with The Boy happened this afternoon. I like that it made me think today about something I wouldn't have otherwise thought about: the concepts of choice and free will and accountability. It actually all fits in with the Great Mysteries of Life and other heavy stuff that I've been pondering lately. So maybe right there is the wisdom I was looking for... I just got it from my ten year old instead of from Bing.
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Rachel,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog! What a great way to get us thinking. So to answer your question. When I think of 'free', I think of money. Not free money, but the freedom that comes with being able to pay the bills and have money left over. The freedom from being able to but my husband a new pair of jeans or me some clothes for a meeting and not stress over whether I am going to be able to but groceries this week. That is free to me. Thanks for asking.