Freedoms: Responsibility Without Burden

Burden happens not when one carries a load, but when that load becomes undesirable. The load doesn’t necessarily change, but the perception of its weight, importance, and meaning, does.

Maybe desire has something to do with it. If one doesn’t desire carrying a load in the first place, it never has a chance of becoming a burden. If one doesn’t have expectations on the results, or seeks a certain reward from carrying the load, then any outcome will be acceptable. There is freedom in this.

But without expectations, why even carry a load? Why be responsible?

My first answer would be, “Each expectation is a load in itself. Why carry two loads?”

My second answer would be, “Being able to make a true choice is freedom. Responsibility is simply the resulting action of an original choice. Being able to carry the load until the choice is fulfilled, without doubting that choice and changing one’s perception of the load being carried, without being burdened with the choice, that is freedom.”

Responsibility that leads to burden is the doubting of the original choice.

Responsibility that does not lead to burden is the celebration of the original choice.