Monday, July 14, 2014

Amsterdam Day 2 (9 of 21)

July 14, 2014
Today I went on a walking tour of Amsterdam. My tour guide from SANDEMANs, Kor, pronounced like “hard core”, took our group on a tour of Amsterdam with such zest and life, but he was not dragging us. There are some people who know what they are talking about and just ramble so quickly that no one else understands a word they are saying. Kor did not do this. He took his time and repeated things when asked. He even spoke Dutch, a little German, and of course English so that he put the emphasis where it should go. Kor explained that Amsterdam is 800 years old and is Dutch. He said the Dutch have a saying, “God created the world, but the Dutch made Holland. I thought this was funny as Dr. V just told me this earlier in the day.
Today I would like to talk to you about freedom. We all want to be free; free from the watchful eye of our parents, teachers, even others that could judge us. I am a firm believer that everyone should take some liberty with their lives; however I do not think that people should act unseemly. In society young people want to grow up too soon. For those of you who might study abroad I want to let you know that it is okay to be you. That is what freedom is actually all about. No one has to conform or be in a box doing the same thing that everybody else is doing. I live outside of the box because I want to be able to soar when the winds lift me. God has blessed me today with several gusts of wind when I was warm. He kept the rain from falling down on me today, and I am thankful.
On my tour I found out that the Dutch here in Amsterdam just wanted to live free. Kor the tour guide said Amsterdam is the land of the “Hippie”. He explained that the three XXX’s on the flag of Amsterdam is representative of the three things that they have conquered. One is fire, two is flood, and three is the plague.

Freedom for each person is different. In Amsterdam to be free is totally different from freedom in America. Each one of us is reared in an environment that we either embrace or rebel against. American, Dutch, French, or German we all have to know what we want freedom to mean. Be free, stay free, but don’t live unseemly lives trying to fit in or make friends.