The little boy was around 8 years old; he was tall, active, playful, brown skin, smart, curious and sweet. I spent all day watching him, his eyes was beautiful and with an amazing shine, but still with a big sadness inside. Really more like disappointment or maybe resignation.
He loved read, and I could see how he was always thinking about all things he read, saw, listened and felt. That was as he was looking a sense of all this things.
The boy was in the park during the morning; there he played with his friends. It was a beautiful place, with a lot of flowers, all kind of trees and funny things to play. After two hours, arrived his mom who asked him to up in the car to go to eat. They went to a mall and ate fast food. In this way continued the day of the boy, he was as playing all day, relaxed, quiet.
At night he went to play chess with his granddaddy, suddenly, he asked to his granddaddy what seems a question always present in his mind: granddaddy, how the freedom is?
The old man was very confused with that question. Finally asked to the boy: why do you ask me that?
The boy told him: I have heard that you knew the freedom; I have heard that you lived without bars in your windows or soldier in all places. You could live out of the jails. How the freedom is?
His granddaddy almost crying said the boy: son, but it is a free country, you live in freedom. You can to go whatever you want to, here we don’t have a war or something like that.
The boy was absolutely disappointment with that sterile conversation, but he did his last try and said: I cannot go to visit to my friend Mike because it is very dangerous place, I cannot go out with mom at night because someone could attack us, I cannot open the windows in the car because someone could stolen us in the road, I just see soldiers in the park all time, they have long guns, it is the country where more people is murdered in violent ways in the world. It is a war and all of us are living in a jail, some jails are bigger than others. But anyway granddaddy, how the freedom is? I just want to know how it is.
In that moment the old man understood the importance of that question, he started to think what could be the better answer. He stood up and looked for his pipe, took it careful and parsimoniously, put one hand over the boy's head meanwhile support the pipe with the other. He returned to the chair and started to smoke... After some minutes he said: well my son, the life is not necessary as you have known, as you know the freedom is not the chance to go to the park or to eat in a mall. The freedom is much bigger and powerful that it, but you just can find it in the small things, it is very subtle. Freedom is the chance to can do whatever you want to do; it is the possible to feel sure, but I am not talking about not feel fear to be stolen, I am trying to explain that it is the chance to feel that you could to go in the life as far as you want and the only limit is inside yourself. It is like to feel the wind in your face but inside you, as you could close your eyes and go as far as you want. My son freedom is something that someone could try to stolen to us, and they could do more difficult to enjoy it for us, but only you can to lose it, the freedom is a decision; it is a way to life. Maybe you cannot do a lot of things now here, but in the future, you could decide to live in the different way. The freedom is the most difficult thing to keep, because it is always easier to accept that other take decision for you or maybe to feel that other is stealing your chance to do something, but the real freedom is inside you and if you can to keep it, you will do whatever you want, but listened me, freedom is very expensive thing, if you want to be free you should be ready to do a lot of effort to find it and when you are fine and quiet, then you will need to find strength inside you to keep your freedom and ask to yourself whether you are in the way that you want to be.
Boy: then, are we living in this way because people think that it is easier to be free?
Granddaddy: yes my son, I afraid that you are right.
Boy: thanks granddaddy, I knew that you could help me with this.
Granddaddy: I really hope to have helped you.
Then, the boy moved the horse and the game continued.
