Henry’s got me thinking about freedom. We all want it, right? – person and dog – but do we really? Freedom from or freedom to? No one wants to be a slave, only free to enslave ourselves – to a routine, ruler, faith. Henry wants to be free – of his masters – but not too free. Unleashed he ventures as far as he dares, then scrambles back to consoling familiarity, then ventures again.

Am I so different? Few freer than I to speak their mind. A congregation awaits my ascent into my little pulpit. We can jaw about… anything! Only we can’t. I am constrained by your interests, an inbred sense of propriety, language, intellect, the mood of the moment, what somehow needs to be said. Some days the urgency of headlines leaves me no choice of topic: I – and we – must “weigh in.” On other days our minds are freer to amble, ramble, stumble, fumble, have fun.

Politicians promising freedom often mean freedom to do what their party promotes, to hell with everybody else. Freedom to carry a weapon of mass destruction for self-protection. Freedom to despoil our planet. Freedom to curtail the freedom of others, whom they dread. Trump loudly defends freedom – to follow him and ignore the law. Freedom of speech equals freedom to malign, etc.

How much freedom is enough? How much too much? How long is a piece of string? In most areas of my life, I eschew freedom, binding myself to rigid routines to spare myself the harassment of choice. Enslavement to routine frees my mind to meander where it may. I do not want to wonder when to shower or what to wear. Every choice costs me mind I’d prefer to spend elsewhere – with you, say.

Many people are flummoxed where to invest their freedom. OK, we’re free, now what? Go shopping? Turn on the TV? They spend their time passing it: “That was nice,” they smile.

I hate passing time. I don’t find nice nice. Time “passed” is, for me, time misspent, when I should have been working at my work. My work is seeing, saying, loving, and looks a lot like goofing off. “Men are free when they are obeying some deep, inward voice of religious belief,” wrote D.H. Lawrence. “Obeying from within. Men are free when they belong to a living, organic, believing community active in fulfilling some unfulfilled… purpose.” That comes close.

America at our inception was the freest nation ever: no king, no mandatory religion, freedom of thought, speech, movement. Freedom for white males of means gradually morphed into freedom for all law-abiding adults of whatever gender or color. FDR told America we were going to war to protect four freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Today many Americans aim to curtail freedoms: of speech, sexual preference, education, the press; a woman’s freedom to choose maternity; freedom to vote. God, they claim, has dictated these policies, which makes them hard to debate.

Freedom is a wobbly word that often means its opposite. I strain to be free – to serve – the cause of freedom.