They may take our lives…
        … but they’ll never take OUR FREEDOM!!!

This is one of my favorite scenes from any movie. I’m inspired by several things in it:

1. We choose how to live, ultimately. We choose whether to live a rich and full life, however long it may be, or to live small, petty lives in fear and want.
2. People, situations and forces will work against our efforts to live free.
3. Skirts, braided hair with ribbon, and makeup are cool, and no one ever made them look more tough and masculine.
4. Most importantly, people cannot “take our freedom” because real freedom is internal. This is what Viktor E. Frankl discovered in the concentration camps during WWII, about which he wrote in Man’s Search for Meaning. Its also the sentiment behind Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird.“

I’m inclined toward pacifism actually, though I acknowledge the necessity of war to defend those who cannot defend themselves. Even so, if we take the movie as not only historical fiction but also as a metaphor for our spiritual lives, then we can perhaps see how  if we do not fiercely live our freedom, then we have lost it already.

“Those who seek their lives will lose them, while those who lose their lives for my sake will find them.” (Matthew 10:39) Maybe there’s a connection there. Maybe.