Moving Mountains: Exercising Freedom with Care

Introduction

This article is a creative writing project of mine to empower readers and invite families and students to build a better world with us at the CARE Society!

Disclaimer

This project was written without the use of artificial intelligence. I just sat down and wrote this in a 45-minute sitting. We encourage our members to share their unpolished and raw drafts and ideas!

Moving Mountains: Exercising Freedom with Care

Everyone is free to make decisions. Maybe not everything is in your locus of control, but one thing is certain:

You have power, and you have more power than you think.

With our freedom comes choices. Some choices seem easy. Some choices feel good. Others are difficult and uncomfortable.

What will you do with your freedom, however much you have? Will you do the easy thing? Will you throw a stone? Will you move a mountain?

A Ripple Effect: Moving Mountains

We are free to throw stones. We are free to scroll and swipe. We are free to rest and exercise our bodies. We are free to smile, look up, and look down. We are free to speak, sing, and dance, even if softly.

We are free to walk the walk and talk the talk of excellence. We are free to pick up the phone and check in with a loved one. 

These things are in our control and make a difference, even if to start a ripple. We can cause a ripple by throwing a stone at a person, car, or glass house. We can also throw a stone into the middle of a still pond.

Baby Steps: Exposure and Scaffolding Freedom

Many feel that mountains cannot be moved. Yet, moving a grain of sand or throwing a pebble is in our control. 

We have no issue building a mountain-like sand castle with 80 million grains of sand and then moving this mountain under the weight of our feet to squash our 80-million rock formation back down to the sandy ground. We even climb mountains and can chip off a piece of rock―literally moving the mountain―with ease. But even after moving parts of mountains with our own bare hands, we still say it cannot be done. For thousands of years, humans have built pyramids and cities of stone. But today―even with excavators and dynamite―we feel we cannot move mountains.

The system is too big; too complicated. We can't band together and the little man can't get ahead. "They" won't let us even if we tried. My grain of sand or pebble won't do anything. So what's the point?

Bricks: An Easy Weapon, A Difficult Building Block

Yet, we throw bricks into business windows and at cars to start a ruckus and make our voices heard. In the last ten years, we've felt more  empowered to express ourselves... through connection, through pride, but also through negative emotion: fear and longing for order and justice. 

It's an easy decision to throw a single brick when we observe how effective one throw can be. To see shattered glass and destruction with a single blow, it is effortless and efficient. It gets the job done, even if just to direct awareness toward a cause.

But to build a home with that brick? No thanks. That's not for me. That would take coordination. That would take people. That would take care. Besides, building homes is something "other people" do. You know... the ones who don't look or talk like me. I'm better at "loving from afar." I'm one of those people with really good aim and a strong throwing arm. I use bricks and hammers to bring down justice, not to build cities. I'm more of a lurker and a commenter than a creator and weaver. These mountains are just too big, things are too complicated, and I and everyone I know are just so tired of seeing all this rubble everywhere.

Traffic Jam

We find ourselves stopped bumper to bumper in a traffic circle. Yet, with just a bit of care and coordination, everyone can get moving:

"Hey everybody, let's go on 3. Ready? 1, 2..."

"WAIT WAIT WAIT, is it "on 3" or "on go?" "

"Uh... on go! "

"OK!"

" 1, 2, 3... go!"

We can do this. But you and others have to care to even go anywhere. Do you want to just be stuck? Do you want to wait for someone to come and install a traffic light? 

Toward Heaven on Earth

If you don't think mountains can be moved, come to us with your bricks. We’ll bring the mortar and build with you. We care!