Freedom In A Day
This has been pulling me at since the 4th of July. America’s day to celebrate its freedom.
On that day, I scrolled through photo after photo on Instagram. There were indulgences of summer that accompany a day off from work — primarily cook-outs, beers, baked pies, and backyard fireworks.
As an American living abroad, I want to identify with what I saw. But, I struggled as I viewed the freedom of a “day off” juxtaposed with the deeply held value of freedom on which America was founded.
Here in La Seu d’Urgell, I live among 12,000 neighbors. Our city resides at the base of the Pyrenees Mountains in Catalunya… Spain’s most northeastern state.
One of the distinguishing characteristics of my neighbors is that many believe they lost their freedom.
This is hardly a surface belief. It runs deeply inside of them. Their belief precedes even further back through generations of families. Many Catalans think, speak, and act every day based on how they perceive the future existence of their language, history, and spirit.
Many feel that the freedom of their past is forgotten by others in the present.
This awareness of the recent history here has led to a reevaluation of my own take-it-for-granted thoughts on the value — the pursuit — of freedom and how quickly it can be sidelined by others.
Building the Next Stage of Our Lives
As my family and I begin Year 2 in Catalunya, our beliefs about freedom are a central theme in our day-to-day interactions and experiences.
If marking July 4th from afar was the day on which I realized freedom is often taken for granted, then September 11, 2018 was a day that restored my faith.
Seventeen years after the attacks in New York and Washington, DC, September 11th remains a day through which freedom in the United States is acted upon empathetically, yet with defiance.
In Catalunya, September 11th is the anniversary of a day on which Catalans suffered a brutal defeat in 1714. They remember their loss of freedom with empathy… and defiance.
My September 11th this year was spent standing shoulder to shoulder with Catalans on one of the main boulevards in Barcelona, which is Catalunya’s capital city. Over one million of our neighbors traveled from all over Catalunya to stand together.
My quest in joining them was to observe. But that changed into listening intently. Which evolved into a deeper respect for their feelings.
My Catalan friends speak about their distance from freedom — from where it exists today relative to where they believe freedom is actualized.
Each person standing shoulder to shoulder on a boulevard in Barcelona reflects over one million individual personal journeys to reclaim lost freedoms. Their own. Their parents. Their grandparents. Their friends. Their neighbors.
A single day is not enough to celebrate freedom. But, a single day can remind us that every day is a choice to bravely exercise it.
With gratitude,
Joe
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Hi, I’m Joe, the owner of 5 With Joe Performance Coaching. My clients are leaders, organizations, and teams who utilize my Olympic Gold Medal performance strategies and 40 years of navigating whitewater river rapids to streamline decision making and actions when engaged in complicated river currents of business and life.
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