[Toni]

Great topic to discuss, I agree! I like your list, although I think you forgot to list the actual first thing you did in terms of actually moving in the direction of living as a free man; owning your own power to think and decide for yourself was the first actual action you took. It’s not a trivial point either. In my opinion, slavery is a state of mind long before it becomes a state of being in the tangible world. Same goes for freedom. “As a man thinks, so is he.” I also think a person’s mindset is one of the very hardest things to change in terms of actionable items.

All men and women have four basic powers that few are ever aware of. The power to think. The power to feel. The power to speak. The power to act. To the best of my knowledge, these are the essential and only powers we have and/or need to take responsibility for and own in order to live a life done free. It often seems so much easier to pin the blame on others, however, doing so comes at a high price.

There is a famous saying (roughly paraphrasing here)- A man is as happy as he makes up his mind to be. Was it Mark Twain who said that? I suggest the same is true of being free – a man is as free as he makes his mind up to be. You’ve obviously made up your mind to be, and now look what you’ve gone and done… Made it possible for me and all the rest of us here to ponder the same ideal.

Thank you. Thank you for that.