How to Appreciate Your Freedom
Kevin Nuckolls

Why do we take so many things for granted? Why am I so privileged? Perhaps I’m just lucky, lucky to be born in America. Right now, I could get up and go buy a month’s worth of food down at the grocery store. Right now, I could get up and go rent a movie, or call my friends and go out on the town. Do I deserve these things? Did I ever earn all of the possessions I see around me? I have a car, a computer, and a cell phone. I did not pay for any of these things. They were provided to me. All throughout American society, many people never understand how much they owe to the system.

We are free to do so many things. Entertainment is one of our biggest industries. This is because the American public loves to be entertained. Instead of reading a book, we would rather watch “MUST SEE TV.” Instead of taking the time to fix our own problems, we delegate them out to specialists. We are inherently lazy people. We use our money to cheat ourselves out of knowledge. We use our money to buy us time, time for our entertainment. I say ‘we’ because I’m as guilty as the next person. I also love to be entertained. But I’m always taken aback by people who ask me why I read books, or why I spend time reading tutorials on the Internet. They suggest that I should watch TV, or go get drunk instead. That way of thinking disgusts me. Americans should start to understand what they take for granted; you never know when something you love will disappear forever.

That being said, tonight I went out and watched a movie. But I didn’t go see boogeyman, or whatever the most recent thriller is. I went to see “The Story of the Weeping Camel.” It was a story of a small group of camel herders that live in the Gobi desert. These people had no television and no cell phones. They had none of the luxuries that Americans so casually call “necessities.” Their water came from a well. Their food was cooked in a wood burning stove. They must endure intense windstorms and harsh temperatures. Everyone worked, even the very young and the very old. They took nothing for granted. All of their rope was made of camel wool. All of their firewood was scavenged from the desert. Yet, even with all of these hardships, each day they woke up to do the work that must be performed.

I was very impressed with these desert people. There was such a sense of community. There was a specific scene where everyone gathered around and prayed to the earth for forgiveness. They asked forgiveness for our sins. We abuse the earth’s natural resources and take them for granted. This scene really hit me hard. We really do take the earth for granted. Its natural resources are going to run out and we must do something about that. Perhaps we should be more like these people. Perhaps we should have more respect for a lot of things.
A lot of the movie seemed to focus on the various sorts of rituals these people had. They sang songs together; they sacrificed milk for good luck. I wish my community had such things. I have no tradition to speak of. Portions of the movie reminded me of a moment in my life. I once dated a Jewish girl. During Hanukah she and her mother lit a candle and sang a beautiful song in Hebrew. I did not know either of them spoke Hebrew so it was quite a shock to me.

It made me feel almost empty. I have no tradition; I have no ritual. Her family and the family in the movie have things that bond them together. It’s something I’ve always wished for. That is another thing that I think our society could benefit from: tradition.

The movie had a sequence in it symbolized the struggle to keep the desert isolated. The little boy wanted to go to town. He went with his older brother to get batteries and to retrieve a violin player for a ritual to help the camels get along. All along the way, these two young boys rode camels and I slowly started to feel the influence of western society. People started wearing more and more modern clothing. I started to see more and more vehicles, and electricity. Perhaps the most important symbol in the movie was that of the television. The youngest boy was immediately sucked into the idea of television. He loved being entertained. He had not yet learned the value of work. Throughout the remainder of the movie, all the boy would talk about was the television. Even when they returned to the desert, he asked his grandfather for a television. The old man responded with much apprehension. He claimed that if they were to get a television that the boy would unhealthily watch the “glass screen” all day long. Television represents a danger to that old man’s way of life.
Perhaps American society would benefit from that way of thinking. Imagine a world without television. So many people take the TV for granted. What would people do if suddenly their TV was taken away? Perhaps it would be a good thing. People would spend less time killing brain cells and spend more time with their imagination. God forbid! They might even read books! Too many people have become dependent on the television or the computer. Personally, I know that when the power goes out, I sometimes just don’t know what to do. Those people in the desert lived without any luxuries. If they can, then I can also.

So what can be learned here? I think that people should not allow themselves to become so dependent on the world around them. We should learn to appreciate the gifts and the opportunity we are given in this country. The desert people have relatively nothing, and they seem quite content with nothing. I don’t think we can truly appreciate the things we have until we live without them. I worry about the state of affairs today. I will attempt to paraphrase a quote by Larry Niven, “society is only three meals away from anarchy.” I think this is very true; we live our lives never wondering where our food comes from. Our daily lives depend on the rest of the world to give us that which we “need” to subsist.

Our country is one of the greatest consumers in the world but not nearly one of the biggest producers. Watching people live with nothing has really made me re-evaluate how I see the world around me. I will try to not further allow myself to become dependent. If that Niven quote is to come true, I certainly hope that I will be prepared in some small way. The American society is a society built upon assumptions. It is a society built upon dependence. Only when we free ourselves from dependence can we truly appreciate life.

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