Are You Free or Enslaved Maybe Its All in Your Head.

Are You Free or Enslaved Maybe Its All in Your Head. Freedom vs. Bondage It’s Passover and the theme of freedom is on my mind. This holiday celebrates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery and their successful crossing of the Red Sea- a story we are commanded to tell every year at this season. Why is this tale so important that the Bible commands we retell it again and again? While there are many answers to this question, the one that struck me most this year was that we have choices every day between freedom and bondage. Passover is our opportunity to look at our lives and see where we are stuck, in a rut, giving up, or otherwise enslaved, both in our circumstances and in our own minds. Once we identify these â€Å"narrow places,† (the word for Egypt, Mitzrayim, means â€Å"narrow places†), we can do something about them. A Unique Seder Experience My family’s Passover seder was itself an expression of freedom. Some context: Passover is a food-focused holiday. In the order of the service, there are multiple instructions to eat certain foods at certain times; and the conclusion of the first part of the service is a big meal. A BIG meal. It’s like Thanksgiving in the extent to which people indulge themselves on food. The seder also includes four cups of wine (though in my family it was grape juice all the way). Since my nephew Daniel has Crohn’s Disease and is currently ingesting nothing but Pediasure peptide drinks, my brother-in-law Michael created- drumroll please- a food-free seder. This feat, you can imagine, required a huge amount of creativity. Michael designed a board game, complete with a deck of cards that held debate questions and other contests to see who could answer a â€Å"Passover Pursuit† question first. He dressed up as Moses, which was way out of the box for him. And he led an evening of learning, singing and debate. Even without a meal, we managed to spend three hours on our seder talking, laughing, and debating. Breaking Out of the Box One of the debate questions that came up in the Passover Pursuit card deck was what freedom means in the modern age. I was pitted against 16-year-old Daniel for the battle. He pulled out a djembe (an African drum) and made up a rap song. I don’t remember his words; what struck me was his approach to the debate. In my world, debate means talking and arguing. Daniel broke out of that cage with his drumming and rapping. Inspired, I countered with an interpretive dance of freedom vs. bondage. I stood for a few seconds with my arms crossed, strait-jacket-like over my chest, head down. Then I took a step to the side and danced my heart out. I did this about three times. Then I talked about how two people, or even the same person, can be in the same circumstances and choose to feel free or imprisoned. Enslaved by Circumstances? I’ll admit I got some help from a video by Chabad.org that I had watched in preparation for Passover, where a person in a picture was labeled â€Å"Free† and then the same person in the same picture was labeled â€Å"Burdened.† Other identical pictures were labeled â€Å"Liberated† and â€Å"Enslaved,† and â€Å"Pain† and â€Å"Pleasure.† As humans, I argued, we can have illnesses and consider them burdens or find our own liberation within them. We can work a job and feel trapped by it or find our liberation in it. We can win the lottery and gain joy or misery. I won the debate. Part of it was that I made a good argument. But more than that, I think the group was impressed that I didn’t let myself fall into a typical debate mindset and took the risk of dancing my argument. An Octopus’s Story: Existential Anxiety vs. Existential Guilt Perhaps this is a coincidence, but just last week an octopus named Inky escaped from a national aquarium in New Zealand, squeezing through a 50-meter drainpipe into the sea. What might be more remarkable, given that octopuses are famous escape artists, is that Inky’s tankmate, Blotchy, did not budge. Was Blotchy content to remain in captivity? Was he unaware of his free will and the freedom available just down the drainpipe? Had he given up on the chance of an unfettered life? Of course the answers to these questions are more for us to ponder for ourselves. When we are feeling shackled, do we choose to take extreme action, like Inky, or to submit to our lot? Fundamentally, we have a choice between existential anxiety and existential guilt. Taking action, especially action that scares us because it is so unfamiliar and takes us into unknown, potentially risky territory, produces existential anxiety. We rarely regret making a conscious, risky choice regardless of the outcome. In contrast, existential guilt arises when we take the safe path. Submitting to our existential guilt produces existential regret: â€Å"a profound desire to go back and change a past experience in which one has failed to choose consciously or has made a choice that did not follow one’s beliefs, values, or growth needs.† That’s the kind of choice Blotchy made. It’s not the kind of choice I like to make. The Choice is Yours We human beings have clear freedom of choice in every moment, at least over our own mindset about our circumstances. In the end, the ability to think what we think and believe what we believe is the ultimate freedom. The choices we make to break out of the box and into unchartered territory are the ones that move us forward, out of our personal narrow places, and toward a life unbound.

NFL Hater Alternative Ways to Spend Super Bowl Sunday

NFL Hater Alternative Ways to Spend Super Bowl Sunday Super Bowl Sunday! Bread and circuses, bread and circuses! Not really into it? Thats not a problem and theres nothing wrong with you. Super Bowl haters are no more considered abnormal, non-conformists and aliens. Its not your fault that unlike millions of Americans you know better than sitting in front of TV eating junk food, pretending to understand whats going on and in fact just coming for food and drinking games. If you are not going for a Super Bowl Party youve got to fill your Sunday with some alternative plans (cause all your friends and relatives and acquaintances will probably be watching football). Alas, we’ve put together quite a list of things you can try on Super Bowl Sunday. Fear not. It’s not the average, â€Å"Go play some Frisbee golf† list of alternatives. Alternative #1: Do Something Different In reality this should become a personal philosophy of yours from here on out. Did you do the same stuff today that you did yesterday? How about the day before that? It’s time to burst out of your comfort bubble. Do something that makes you uncomfortable. Do something out of the ordinary for â€Å"someone like you.† Here’s a thought, do something you try to avoid. Or, something you’ve never done yet out of fear (nothing bad or illegal). Why do it this Sunday? Super Bowl happens every year. Pretty soon the roman numerals will reach a point where absolutely no one has a clue what number it is (we may have already reached this point). But your life is only going to happen this one, very brief and fleeting, time. And remember youve dreamt about the day when you have nothing to do and nobody is bothering you? Well, thats the day, so use it to do something you wont regret about. Alternative #2: Go Knit Something! Just kidding. Alternative #3: Watch TED Talks All Day You can do everything that the Super Bowl people are doing, just change up the programming to something more â€Å"progressive†. So chips, BBQ wings, a gargantuan hi-def plasma TV, and a bunch of high achievers (99% of which couldn’t make it through try outs in middle school). Youll learn lots of useful, have mixed emotions, enrich your outlook with fresh ideas. TED talks are awesome, mind-blowing and inspiring. Pretty close to the Super Bowl, except no one’s wearing helmets. If you are not that much into educational programs like TED, you are welcome to replace it with your favourite TV series or old movies youve always wanted to see. Alternative #4: Pretend The World’s Ending†¦ The idea appeared first in the smosh.com article a couple years ago, but it is still relevant. If you live in a big (or small) sports-nut town, then the streets, movie theatres, and pretty much everywhere else but the sports bars should be empty during the Super Bowl. You could dress up like a medical patient that just woke up out of a coma into the aftermath of the apocalypse where only roaming bands of renegades and zombies still lurk around every corner. Then, just start wandering around. Just remember: â€Å"It’s fun to pretend, but make sure you dont get overzealous and start looting because this apocalypse is only going to happen until the game is over and you will go to a very real jail.† Alternative #5: Sleep The semester has only started and youve got lots of sleepless nights ahead. Whats more, New Years wasn’t that long ago. And not to mention that students are always sleep deprived. You deserve some rest, and thats the day you can sleep through with no regrets. Alternative #6: Just Be Absolutely Clueless Stop being all defensive. Who cares if you don’t care about the dang Super Bowl? Why youve being all insecure about this? Just go about your day as if you haven’t got clue-one what football is, what the Super Bowl is, or what the big deal is anyway. Twiddle your thumbs, kick some rocks, count some sheep. Whatever floats your boat! Alternative #8: Try to Awaken the Sports-Hordes It’s true, one of the signs of a crumbling empire is that it turns into mob-rule that craves distractions: games, bread, and circuses. You’re right, the world needs saving. Instead of wasting your time watching the Super Bowl, write an epic speech that will inspire the masses, awaken them, enlighten them, and galvanize them to save the rain forest, get income disparity under control, slow down the pace of evolving artificial intelligence! The future of the world is in your hands now! Alternative #9: Alternative Party Who said that you cant host a party just because everyone will be watching football? There are lots of NFL haters, hippies and non-conformists, geeks and intellectuals, and single girls who are also going to ignore Super Bowl Parties and will be more than excited to help you organize the alternative one. The theme of your party may be just that super bowl hating, with vegan snacks and drinks other than beer. Or you may choose any other theme that is suitable to your mood, and weather, and place where you going to host it. We are not going to be that cliche to include alternative #10 in the list as you may expect. But if you have any ideas that can be added to our list share them in the comments!