David Comeau: Snyder- freedom

Snyder writes “to be truly free one must take on the basic conditions as they are—painful, impermanent, open, imperfect—and then be grateful for the impermanence and the freedom it grants us.”
Snyder makes a bold open claim here by describing what he thinks it means to be truly free. In the context of his discussion of defining wilderness, wild, and nature he describes freedom as taking on the basic conditions as they are. He says that the painful, impermenant, open, and imperfect nature of things as they are is good. And that by taking them on in that state and being grateful for the impermanence and the freedom it grants we will be truly free. The idea of impermanence is not something that modern westernized man is comfortable with. When you look at all the safety precautions we take and all the medical research we conduct so that we can defeat disease and old age and live longer, it is obvious we do not accept the freedom that grants us impermanence that Snyder promotes. Personally, growing up in Northern VA,I can only imagine what it would be like to take on basic conditions as they are. When I think of taking on the basic conditions as they are I imagine living simply without all the technological devices I have to make my life easy and comfortable but instead embracing lifes hardships and dangers as they come at me. The adventure that would come from this would definitely grant me a certain freedom and sense of reality that I have never experienced.