Fortune Cookie #14 - Cinderella Got It Right

I pulled this fortune out of my collection this morning and have found myself thinking about it all day.

We will not know the worth of the water 'til the well is dry.

The analogy here is water, but it can be applied to a large number of things.

• Many people don't realize how much their parents mean to them until they lose them.
• Young adults often don't realize how good they had it at home until they move out on their own.
• People who have always had money have no idea how difficult it is to be truly broke.
• Young people take their energy and health for granted. It's rarely appreciated until they get older and tired.

However, this fortune really reminded me of the quote from Boris Yeltsin - "We don't appreciate what we have until it's gone. Freedom is like that. It's like air. When you have it, you don't notice it."

I have lived the last two years outside of the United States. The majority of that time was in China. It doesn't require much time in China to feel how oppressive the atmosphere is. You really do have to watch what you say and do. I'm not going to get into all the details of what can happen and just how particular their rules are, but it is possible to get into a lot of trouble for just opening your mouth about something you think.

This was something we were aware of before going but didn't really understand it until we got to experience it firsthand. We kept our noses clean and stayed out of trouble, but the times it was most difficult was when speaking to a Chinese person who honestly has no idea how oppressed and controlled they are. Having never experienced being free, they think they already are.

I had a Chinese girl get really upset with me at a party after she asked why I didn't teach on a particular subject. I explained to her the restrictions I was under and she got very defensive. "We have total freedom of religion here. I can be anything I want. I can believe in Buddha or Jesus or Allah or anything."

Talking to her further, I learned that she had no further argument. Yes, she could believe whatever she wanted. However, that was the full spectrum of the freedom she was allowed. She is not allowed to voice it, to tell other people about it, to share her faith (whatever it may be), to invite someone to join her at a religious event, to show any outward appearance of what her beliefs were, etc.

That is not freedom.

She had the right to have her own thoughts and praised her government for allowing that.

This is just one example, but it was the same across the board (personal ownership of property, taxes, educational choices, speech rights, media control, volunteer spies on every street corner) and most have no idea that much of the world does not live like this. This is simply because it is all they know. Having never experienced freedom, they have no idea how sweet it is.

I know America is not perfect and there are things we can point out as not being as free as they used to be, but way too many people take our freedoms for granted and have no idea just what that freedom means. This is especially troubling when I see people flying into rages over the smallest infractions on their "rights".

So many of the people screaming that America is a cesspool are working hard to make it worse without realizing they are doing it. The more and more they chip away at our freedoms, the closer we get to losing the very things that make our country a place to be proud of.

I'm trying to be careful and not single out any particular movement or recent event because people will want to focus on their opinion of that event instead of my overall sentiment.

Please appreciate what you have. Whether we are talking about money, freedom, spare time, health, whatever. If the time ever comes that you lose it, you don't want to look back and realize that you squandered it.