Sweet Freedom

Is it not strange that one of the things humans value most is freedom, but we really never experience it?

Somehow it seems that humans have a strange habit of binding ourselves at hands and feet. We trap ourselves in the rat-race of everyday life and agendas that try to organize every bit of our life into a rational cage of thought and action. If this is what we want, then is freedom necessary? Is it as good as people have made it out to be?

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains"
I think Rousseau pretty much summed up the human sitch. We are never free- something always leads us on a path which we cannot determine. We can bind ourselves with ideas, we can strangle ourselves with love, we can give away identity to belong to a group... never are we truly free, and most likely freedom never really exists.

Relation to New Moon: Bella's dad told her that she has to leave Forks because of the depressed way she is asking, but Bella point-blank refuses. Bella has formed a bond with the town, and has sacrificed her freedom for the happiness she had found there. Although her father could MAKE her move, it would be against FREE WILL. That is, the will of Bella's 'freedom'. Her wish, that she is bound to by her own doing.