The Price of Freedom
The Price of Freedom
Have you ever been tempted to cut a corner or to take the easiest route, though
you know it may not necessarily be the best one? Or have you ever made a decision
because it was quick and simple, knowing that it might come back to bite you
later?
I appreciate a parable Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard told about the
dangers of taking the easy route. It is a story about a wild duck. Though life
was difficult at times, the beautiful creature loved the boundless heavens and
the endless stretches of wilderness. Soaring about treetops and towns, the duck
symbolized to its tame counterparts, who could not fly, the epitome of freedom.
One evening during fall migration, he chanced to light in a barnyard where
a farmer was feeding his ducks. The beautiful creature ate the corn the farmer
sprinkled about and liked it so much that he stayed the night in a bed of warm
straw. He ate the duck's corn again the next day. And the next. And the next....
When spring came, he heard his old companions flying overhead and an almost
forgotten yearning awoke deep within him. The duck had all but squelched his
instinct for freedom over the comfortable and easy winter. But now he yearned
to join his comrades in the sky. He flapped his stretched wings as he strained
toward the flock, but he had grown fat and indolent and unable to fly. The wild
duck had become a tame duck.
The easy way through our problems, though appealing, may not be the best way.
(Remember...the only place you will find success before work is in the dictionary!).
It's always easier to borrow than to save; easier to jump in now than to do
the hard work of planning; easier to postpone confronting a situation than to
remedy it; easier to cut corners than to do it right; easier to remain the same
than to make changes.
If you want to fly, you may have to pay a price. But freedom is worth it --
at any cost!
Are you ready to soar?
-Author Unknown
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