Leonardo interview: by gardega

alex: Hello, Leonardo

Leonardo: How are you?

Alex: I am fine.

Leonardo: what would you like to discuss today?

Alex: Personal liberty vs. government interference in our lives.

Leonardo: a noble topic, if ever there was one.

Alex: why do some people want to curtail there own freedoms? Why would they want a big government nanny state to control them and tell them what to do?

Leonardo: Alex, most people are no different than the sheep in yonder pasture. They prefer to be led through the hills of their lives and to travel safe and have a good shepherd who feeds them and keeps them safe.

Alex: That is a sad way to live, leonardo. A life laid out before you like a map drawn by the hand of another.

Leonardo: You will find, alex that people who prefer this kind of reality, this "big shepherd" is the kind of person who has a fear of the unknown. They are not willing to see the hills beyond the safe ones on which they have grazed for most of their lives. They are the same people who seek creature comforts as a panacea to their daily ills and worries.

Alex: To me that is dying before being born.

Leonardo: Very much so. Very few people are willing to live life on the edge, to fight for their dreams and visions at all costs, the price is too high for many. The person insteads hides in a sort of self made prison, a womb, safe and with invisible walls.

Alex: Do you think this has roots in the childhood?

Leonardo: It is likely, alex. You were born to live on your own terms and the price has been heavy but you know the cost of not following your heart is a double tragedy. People want sane and simple lives, they are not interested in adventure of spirit. They travel abroad and they may as well be in their living rooms at home, they are the same scared creature there as well. To defeat the chains of childhood, the bind to the womb, this is crucial. This is the true Gordian knot the hero must undo if one wishes to find freedom.

Alex: I look around me and I see spirits caged like birds, people hiding in the safety of numbers. they dont want to rock the boat-- the individual is dead, it seems.

Leonardo: Many mavericks fail. It is part of the game of life, the geometry, if you will.

alex: tell me more...

Leonardo: The daddy is replaced by govt and the state for many. It is a substitute for the child's inate need to be held and safe and taking care of. Much of our reality is shaped by the desires of childhood. In ancient times the sun was the great father and the moon the maternal mother.

Alex: So man is best if he lives for himself, his own dreams and not for another.

Leonardo: This is true and a man is best when he is left on his own to devices and given the freedom to do so. In history the state has limited man through various means and has bled him of his better nature like wine stolen from a grape.

Alex: Why would a bird build its own cage leonardo?

Leonardo: It is a mystery for the ages, alex. It is best for you to follow your own dreams and live your own life and let the sheep remain on the hill, You are not one to guide them. The only people in history who made any difference were the ones who left the hill and went to find unknown pastures. This is bothersome to most people sometimes to the point of murder. It is more than a caged soul can handle, the watching of a bird in flight, into the great sky of possibility. It is far better to bring the bird down with a well placed stone.

Alex: well, I must get back to drawing St. Michael. It was a pleasure, Leonardo.

Leonardo: Likewise, And remember we live in a world defined by opposites. Light and dark, cold and hot, freedom and captivity. All are equal and just in gods eyes, there is a palce for sheep and a place for wolves.