When we were leaving Salina Kansas at the spectacularly early time (by our low standards) at 7:45 a.m. we had breakfast in the room provided by the hotel where we saw a heavily bearded man who looked a lot like a 60s hippie.  He was wearing a T-shirt with the words “2022 Freedom Maintenance Engineer” written on the front. This phrase puzzled me. Does he really believe in freedom or is he one of the Trumpsters more than willing to give up his freedom to follow the ravings of their  spiritual leader-Donald Trump? Or was he like the Canadian Convoy truckers who believe freedom means they can do whatever they want? Or was he like the  Covid refuseniks who believed they had the right to gather in public places such as churches when public health experts warned this would permit the virus to spread wildly?  Or was he like members of aHome Owners’ Associations like the one we lived in at San Tan Valley Arizona  where residents believe freedom means allowing the association to make a vast array of rules on everything about their home, from colours, to plants, to siding materials in order to ensure as much boring homogeneity as possible so that it is very difficult to find the house you are staying in?

In modern North American society freedom has a thousand faces many of which bear no resemblance to each other. Or to real freedom for that matter. There were words on the back of the man’s shirt that I could not read because he passed by me too swiftly. That sucked because I might have gained some wisdom. I felt I might have learned something. As it stood I could only speculate.

I  like Kris Krisotopherson but freedom really is more than word for nothing left to loose.