I hesitate to address such a complex principle as
freedom but I have been thinking much of what actually constitutes
Freedom. There are many circumstances and situations that restrict our
freedoms. There are governments and laws that either take away our
freedoms or protect our freedoms. There is one freedom that no one or
no government can take from us. Only we can give up this freedom. It
is the freedom of choice or in other words our Agency to choose. This
is a gift from God and it is eternal. This is a freedom given only to
the children of our Heavenly Father and this particular freedom
applies only to us as human beings.
All my life I have loved animals and have tried to
learn about them and their habits and lives. When I was a boy I
acquired all kinds of pets some I raised with great success and others
did not adapt to domestication. As I look back on the different ones I
find that the success was based on the amount of freedom that was
taken away from each one. The ones that suffered the most changes in
their natural lives were the most unsuccessful in adapting to
domestication.
I remember one day I came upon a beautiful, young Red
Tailed Hawk. It had just come out of the nest to learn to fly. I
caught it easily and carefully took it home. I put him on a post in
the grape arbor and took over the role of parent Hawks. I named him
Zar for I thought he was like a king. I got my flipper and went to
hunt birds to feed my new pet. At first I would give the bird to him
while he was sitting on the post and watch as he tore it apart with
his sharp beak. Soon he would see me coming with a bird for him and
would sound a cry of welcome "Coleeeeeeo!!!!!!!!" I would toss the
bird on the lawn and he would fly down and pounce upon the bird with
his sharp talons and devour it with his sharp hooked beak. Soon he
could fly very well but sat mostly on the post so as to not miss a
meal. The birds got harder and harder to kill for him and I began to
tire of trying to keep up with his voracious appetite. He seemed to
have no bottom and I couldn't keep up with his hunger. I tried to get
him to fly away and hunt for himself but he was always there on the
post waiting for the easy meal.
I had unwittingly taken away his freedom to soar in the
wide blue skies and dive on his prey. He didn't know the thrill and
the joy of hunting for himself. I decided that I had made a mistake
and had taken away his free wonderful life that the Lord had created
him for. How to get him to leave and go back to the wild free life he
was meant for? I decided that I would go away and then he would have
to go away and find food for himself. Hunger would drive him to hunt
for himself.
For three days he sat on his post calling for me to
come and feed him but I did not relent and soon he flew away and
soared high in the sky circling our house for a long while then
disappeared. A few times I saw him early in the morning come and
alight on his post but soon he would give up and fly away. After
that when I would see a big Red Tailed Hawk soaring around in the blue
sky I wondered if it might be my pet Zar.
When our son Keith LaRae (Kiko) was an Explorer Scout
we were camped in our favorite camp on Trout Creek. This camp is where
the trail comes down from the Carrizo and drops into Trout Creek where
there was a series of level Terraces shaded by tall Black Oak and Pine
trees. We had about 18 boys and men in the party and we were enjoying
our camp in this beautiful part of the Sierra Madre Mountains. Kiko
had taken a couple of the boys with him and had gone to search for
some horses that had not come into camp with the rest of the "Remuda".
They were riding along on a grassy side hill covered with trees and
shrubs when a little spotted White Tailed Faun jumped up and started
to run away. Kiko piled of his mule and even though he was hindered by
his Chaps and spurs was fast enough to catch the little Faun. He held
him tenderly in his arms and carried him back to camp. There he
contrived to feed him some diluted canned milk and tied him in his
tent where the little fellow lay quietly as his instinct prompted him
to do. The rest of the trip and all of the way home Kiko took good
care of the little Deer so when he arrived home he was in very good
condition and had lost most of his fear of humans. At home all of the
family fell in love with little Bucky, as they Named him, and he
became the family pet. Each of the children took turns feeding him his
baby bottle filled with fresh warm cows milk. That little Deer thrived
on the attention and good food and grew slick and fat. He was very
playful and lively and had the freedom of our whole lot to run and
play in. Sometimes he would play a little rough and knock some of the
smaller children down.
Even though we had taken him out of his free wild home
in the Sierra Madre Mountains and away from his Mother he seemed to be
happy and free in his home for he knew no other. He had claimed as his
home a room in the old abandoned Adobe Chicken Coop where he felt safe
from the big dogs of the neighborhood. We had placed a half door in
the open door of the coop to keep out the dogs and keep him safe. I
saw him several times come running in the driveway followed closely by
a big dog. He would run swiftly to the chicken coop and jump over the
half door into the refuge of his home. When this
happened the dog was run off in a hail of rocks that we threw at him
for bothering our Bucky. Bucky seemed even to enjoy eluding the dogs
in this way. After the first year he grew some spike horns and with
his sharp hoofs would defend himself from the smaller dogs. He was
prudent enough however to run to safety when the big dogs came after
him.
There was plenty of food of all kinds for him to eat
around the lot and the garden so he grew steadily and soon was not the
loving little Deer for the kids to love and pet. Naoma and I decided
that he had become a danger to the smaller children. He could almost
kill a small dog with his sharp front hoofs.
The family was used to eating delicious venison steaks
so they never knew when they ate some prime venison after Bucky had
disappeared.
I tell this story to let you decide whether we deprived
that little Faun of his freedom or whether we just gave him another
home until he was ready to be harvested. True we kept him from filling
the measure of his creation but we did it out of love and to have him
for a pet for the whole family.
I sometimes wonder if over protective parents deprive
their children of some of their freedoms because they love them and
don't want to see them get hurt. There is a fine line between what is
too much protection and what isn't enough. Every situation is
different so we must rely on good judgment and the Spirit of the Lord
to guide us constantly.
The only way we can be free is through keeping the
commandments of the Lord. We must make right choices that do not lead
us to things that can enslave us. This can keep us free from the
enslaving chains of debt or the clutch of the vice of gambling, We
must choose to be free from the more insidious things that can destroy
us by following the counsel of the Prophets of the Lord.
The Governments of the world can take away our freedom
to do the things that we consider our rights, but they cannot take
away our freedom to make right choices. We are free to have peace of
mind and be free to serve others in their need. We are free to love
our family and spouses and our Neighbor as ourselves. We can always be
free and happy in our hearts if we make right choices or if we make a
mistake we can repent and become free again.
Some of the things that are very destructive to our
freedom are Worry, anticipation of things that could surely harm us if
they happened but probably won't and worst of all is fear. We all seem
to have some fear of the unknown. This fear can keep us from doing
many things that are good and we would like to do them, but because
they are unknown to us we usually fear them.
The story is told of a ruler that was very harsh with
the prisoners that he took in war or even the criminals of the land.
His fame had spread far and wide for his many executions. One time a
neighboring Magistrate was visiting him in his palace when he was
called to pass judgment on two prisoners that had been taken in war.
The ruler and the Magistrate went to the judgment hall for the
hearing. When the first prisoner came in he was a bold warrior and
stood proudly before them. Behind the prisoner was a fearsome big
black door next to the corridor that led to the execution yard. The
ruler sadly looked at this proud prisoner and spoke saying, "I will
give you a choice between two fates. You can choose execution or you
can choose to go through that black door that is at your back".
The prisoner turned and looked at the formidable black door for
a moment then turned and with head held high he chose execution. He
was led away to his death.
The next prisoner came in and the whole process was
repeated. As he was led away the Magistrate asked the Ruler, why do
you give them their choice? What is behind that big black door. The
Ruler answered sadly. "That door leads to freedom but because it is
the unknown they would rather face execution than the unknown black
door."
We must learn to conquer our fear and worry over the
things that probably will not happen. Anticipation of disastrous
happenings that might occur can only rob us of peace of mind and the
freedom to act as if it were not going to happen. Positive thinking
can give us freedom to act in many things while pessimism and negative
thinking can make us miserable and take away our freedom to act in
many things.
I am very thankful to live in a free country where the
government is trying to preserve our freedoms. They make many mistakes
in legislation that actually takes away some of the freedoms that we
cherish but in the whole we are among the free nations of the earth.
We cherish that freedom and must be vigilant to preserve
it.