Over one man/woman
necessity stands

In the shape of his passions,
   over another the habit of hearing an obeying,
      over a third as a logical conscience,
         over a fourth as caprice and a mischievous pleasure
         in escapades.

These four will, however,
seek freedom of their will
precisely where each of them
is most firmly fettered;

It is as if the silkworm
sought the freedom of its will
in spinning.

How does this happen?

The Wander and his Shadow by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans by R. G. Collingdale, aphorism 9

Laura and I had a impromptu discussion last night.  You know, it just happened, like weather that shows up to ones surprise.  We thought about our personal histories, about the extent to which we have changed as adults, becoming unlike our parents.  On the one hand, each of us is nothing like the mother and/or father which nurtured us to adulthood.  On the other, I suspect that we’ve continued, extended the path of our parents, in ways that, to appearance seem radically different.  Even if undeniable, is that difference a matter of degree?

Nietzsche wrote much about “free will.”  He thought freedom as we usually mean, is illusion, a massive error inherited from antiquity. Nietzsche observed that it is precisely when we feel the least inner conflict, the greatest ease of action, – it is then we are the least free.

We humans are each one-of-a-kind.  No two alike.  Some of us are living at the behest of what our body finds most satisfying: running, collecting art, etc.  Another organizes day to day life according to following the rules, what the boss says they ought to do.  And another, engineering their life as logically as they are able. Another of us is an irrepressible trickster, finding humor, irony as often as they can.

Each is most firmly fettered.

Silkworms we all!