Freedom To Act

Human the Pequenino: Today one of the brothers asked me: Is it a terrible prison, not to be able to move from the place where you're standing?
Hive Queen: You answered...
Human the Pequenino: I told him I am now more free than he is. The inability to move frees me from the obligation to act.
Hive Queen: You who speak languages, you are such liars
~Xenocide (p.1)


Xenocide is one of my favorites of the Orson Scott Card books. Everything said, every action taken, has deeper meanings. The inability to move. Human is a Pequenino father tree. He literally cannot move, his limbs are fixed. His inability to take any action has the ability to remove the obligation, having to act, and subsequently the guilt from being unable to act. In theory, it should give him the freedom to observe and feel some sort of acceptance that whatever happens is beyond his control.

Still, the queen is right that he lies. He is a prisoner of his immobility. It holds him hostage. And I'm sure wears on his soul. To see the world go on, to see situations that his loved ones are in, and to not be able to act. There is a definite imprisonment by not being able.



This isn't closely related but it reminds me of hearing a story once that God is like a real parent. And we are all his children. At some point every parent mothers you and makes everything better. But there comes a point where every child stumbles and falls, then they go crying to the parent saying "Why didn't you stop me from falling?" And the parent has to say "You are out in the world and you must learn to live in it. If I sheltered you from every bruise, every broken heart, every tragedy - then how you would learn about good and bad, happiness and sadness, joy and pain. The achievements are sweeter because you know how failure feels. Once you hit the bottom, everything else is a blessing."

God is a real parent. It is a shame that there has to be suffering, violence, and war in the world. But I truly believe that he is giving us an opportunity, to learn to be the better people we can be, to do good instead of hurt. We are punished - physically, mentally, emotionally - for what we inflict. And for those who are the victims of our inability to act the way we should, God welcomes them to his home with open arms and they are without earthly pain.