Billy was the most unruly and headstrong little boy.
To teach him at home or at school was not much of a joy.
He didn’t want to learn from what his parents or his teachers said,
everything had to go his way, the way he’d figured it in his head.
Laws and rules didn’t fit at all into his life, they were taboo.
How hard he’d made it for his parents he didn’t have a clue.
“If all of us will follow the rules to the best of our ability”
his father said, “we’ll experience real freedom and harmony.”
But Billy never understood. “How on earth can this ever be,
if I have to obey so many rules, how can I be free?”
Billy built himself a kite, of which he was sooo proud,
and now for the first time he went to the park to try it out.
“I want my kite to fly high” he said, “higher than any other before.
But he run out of string, and to lengthen it, he had no more.
“I’ll just let it go free” he said “and then I can watch my kite fly,
over the hills, above the mountains, through the endless sky!”
His dad stood close to him and slowly shook his head.
With a heart full of love for his son he said:
“You see, in life there are limits to freedom my boy,
to which we have to submit, in order to experience joy.
If you let go of your kite and do not restrain it at all,
it will not fly high through the clouds, it will just fall.
It’ll come down fast, will be caught up in a tree,
then your kite is in bondage, it is no longer free.
To make it rise, you have to hold it firmly in your hand.
I know my son, this is so hard for you to understand.
You see, everywhere in nature there are laws and rules
and people who ignore them must be the greatest fools.
There are rules for playing music to create a melodious sound,
obeying laws in traffic makes it safe for us to get around.
It is a law of nature that makes the tides come in and go,
and laws of nature let the water from the mountains flow.
They also make the water rise to form the clouds up high,
let the fish swim in the ocean and carry the birds into the sky.
Because of laws of nature, the great ocean is held back in its place.
Our planet, sun, moon and stars, they move to rules in space.
You are part of nature, you’ll have to learn and understand,
how to fit in and make good use of rules is all in your hand.
It’s not the absence of laws and rules that make us free,
but to live with them in harmony, that is the key.
– Sonja Baumung