I recently saw the film, Jack Reacher, starring Tom Cruise. One scene still stands out in my mind. Jack, who previously was a military policeman, was explaining how he was trained to protect America’s freedom. He explained, this is the home of the brave and the land of the free. Or is it? Look at those people are they free? Free from debt? Free from struggle? Free to live their life the way they want?
His point was that very few of us are truly free. So I got to wondering how we judge our lives in terms of freedom, courage, integrity, and so forth. Can we truly use those words when we reflect on our own lives?
I do not have any answers. That is probably why that scene is still stuck in my mind. How free is free? How free should it be?
I would like to believe that those words stir thoughts of pureness that we strive for but maybe can never reach. Like ultimate targets, not just descriptions. Maybe brave and freedom represent a states we can never achieve.
Ultimate it points to the need for self-reflection. What does it mean to me? How can I do something different to achieve a different result. We need to calibrate daily. Are we as brave as we could be? Are we as free as we could be? Is our integrity as strong as it could be? Is our purpose as clear as it could be?