set your friends free

Wendell Berry:

In our limitless selfishness, we have tried to define “freedom,” for example, as an escape from all restraint. But “free” is etymologically related to “friend.” These words come from the same Indo-European root, which carries the sense of “dear” or “beloved.” We set our friends free by our love for them, with the implied restraints of faithfulness or loyalty. And this suggests that our “identity” is located not in the impulse of selfhood but in deliberately maintained connections.

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