Nuts: An old illustration, and some new thoughts

For those of you who missed the “rock-tar-nut” illustration earlier this year, here’s a brief summary:

While on my 5am walk, I picked up three things: a smooth beach-like rock, a rough piece of road tar, and a rusty metal nut. Later in philosophy club, we used them to discuss purpose, and I asked each of you to expound on whether you considered your existence to be:

1. Like a smooth stone from the beach, shaped into being by impersonal and more-or-less random forces, and without inherent purpose.
2. Like a piece of road tar, a rough slurry of ingredients mixed together by a person, and therefore created with an apparent purpose.
3. Like a nut, made of pure metal alloy, machined to careful tolerances, and therefore created with an ultra-specific purpose.

As I recall, we had an intersting discussion of these metaphors and a good chuckle with those club members who identified themselves as ‘nuts.” Two people who did not consider themselves nuts, Josh and Annie, have made some recent contributions to this blog that got me thinking; I’m beginning to wonder about a possible inverse relationship between fulfilling one’s purpose and holding onto one’s freedoms. Here’s an attempt to articulate those thoughts…

At least one student commented that although the nut was apparently created for a specific purpose (to bolt a car’s strut in place), it was not fulfilling that purpose at the moment. RATHER, it would seem that the nut had been ‘liberated’ from fulfilling its purpose. “Freedom!” it cried. It had been liberated from an uncomfortably tight situation where a wrench had torqued it down, fastening it into place… into the place where it fulfills its purpose.

And that seems a bit like my experiences. For example, one large purpose in my life right now is teaching young adults, and in order to fulfill that purpose, to be in the ‘place’ where I can best serve my students, I must give up certain ‘liberties’ and ‘freedoms’ that might allow me, for instance, to travel the world or hike the Appalachian Trail. So, I guess I feel like a nut, tightened down in place, fulfilling my purpose, and less free than others who might be liberated to roam the world, visiting distant horizons of experience.

It’s not that I regret being a teacher, or being wrenched down into place though. In fact, I’m quite satisfied that I’ve traded some freedoms/liberties in order to better fulfill my purpose. I would even go so far as to say that trading some freedoms (that a larger paycheck might buy for example) is the means by which I find more purpose, more fulfillment, and a few freedoms too!

In short, it seems to me that many times, in order to make a meaningful commitment (such as in a career or relationship), you must sacrifice some of your personal freedoms, but in return, you often get a fulfillment of purpose that you might not otherwise find.

What do you think? Is there a nugget of truth here, or am I nuts?