Some Thoughts on Letting Go and Freedom

I think that most of you folk know that I shun creebing about my tiny, high-class problems in a public forum, just as I would not take a megaphone to a street-corner and broadcast them. However, I sometimes ruminate on my thoughts during and after some of my more interesting times, just in case someone else may find that it could relate to something that is going on with them. Then, too, I often get some fascinating perspectives from others, many of which I find helpful to me.
That said, I am profoundly grateful to a couple of dear friends for providing the springboard I needed, at just the right time, in order to make a mental leap... one which has caused me to think of a situation in a very different way, thereby making a connection between two things which I have known for a while, but just hadn't ever put together in a manner such as relates to how I am habitually used to thinking, feeling, and behaving.
There are two movie scenes I like to use as illustrations in conversation, when apropos of the general subject matter. I cannot recall ever having utilized them both in the same exchange, though.
(1) In Star Wars, Chapter III: Revenge of the Sith, Yoda counsels Anakin Skywalker by telling him, "You must train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose." We see what becomes of Anakin when he fails to detach from his feelings and gives in to his fears by attempting to control a situation when it is not within his province to do so. 
(2) In The Shawshank Redemption, Brooks got a parole after half-a-century of being in prison, but cannot adjust to a free life, and eventually hangs himself.
Now, in using that first illustration, I am careful to point out that when one lets another person go, one gives leave to this other person to follow their own path wherever it may lead. That means one must recognize and accept that the other person gets to walk away, change their feelings, move to another place, or even die. 
I point out further that when one does this, one is not freeing this other person... for the other person has always had these rights. One is freeing one's self from a prison of one's own making in realizing this.
To let any situation go, one is called upon to make a judgment as to which things are under one's control and which things cannot be changed. Then, also... there are those things which one should not attempt to control. This freedom of will business is not to be taken lightly.
What I had never considered before is that, in letting myself out of my own prison, I must now learn how to handle the freedom.
Freedom, for someone like me, can be a scary thing. How I act freely gives measure of the content of my character. 
Sorry folks... there will be no hangings.
I tend to think that, for most persons, there are freedoms which are desired and there are those which are not sought. Likely, there are also many sorts of little freedoms, which I believe may be overlooked in day-to-day living. 
When I find myself suddenly and unexpectedly free, shall I let fear speak and act for me? I would not wish to have My Positive Eye jaundiced by bitterness or petty meanness born of despair for the loss of my comfortable cage. This is a chance to get out of my self!
I have faith that if I continue to learn and grow... if I am willing to do a little work... if I am honest... if I act with kindness and compassion... then I am on the right path and all will work out for the best in the end.

The Fool

   The Fool is almost always the very first card of the Major Arcana and is either unnumbered or numbered as zero.

   In my deck (Robin Wood), the Fool is an androgynous person, colorfully dressed, about to step off a cliff while playing the flute, and is accompanied by a small dog.
   The Rider-Waite deck also shows the sun behind the fool, who is carrying his/her worldly belongings in a cloth tied to a stick and a white flower in the hand extended behind nim/her.
   From what I have learned, along with my own insight, the Fool can be interpreted on a few different levels. Naturally, it also depends on its position in a reading and what layout is used for the reading.
   Basically, though, by itself, the Fool represents an irrevocable change. In some decks, the fool is reaching for a butterfly and/or the dog (or cat) is nipping at his/her leg.
   The sun behind the figure is often interpreted as the light of reason or what is considered rational, and the firm ground which he/she is about to leave as the stable reality that can be seen and felt. The dog can be argued as either worldly creatures chasing him/her to the cliff's edge, or attempting to prevent the folly of him/her taking a leap of faith, where logic shows no solid place to stand.
   The beginning of the Fool's journey is here. It is a journey of spirit and so cannot be divined by reason or calculation alone. The beginning of such a journey often requires one to put aside those beliefs which have always been considered safe, sensible and comfortable.
   But, once such a journey has been undertaken, one cannot go back to the way things were before the first step had been taken. Now the Fool must learn to fly. But, doubt will undo the Fool. The childlike belief in magic and the innocent perspective that the universe is one of awe and wonder is what the Fool needs in order not to fall back to the Earth.
   There are more (and deeper) interpretations, including the one that the Fool's step into the unknown represents the beginning of the universe, expanding into what we know now from conditions to which the Second Law of Thermodynamics prevents it from ever regaining.
   Last but not least, the card can be dealt upside-down (called "reversed" or "inverted" in a reading). Many readers interpret that as causing the card to represent the opposite of its righted meaning.
   So, the Fool would normally be interpreted as the seeker (in this case, you) looking for fulfillment and new experience through an apparently undisciplined, unprecendented, and lighthearted throwing-of-caution-to-the-winds in anticipation of a whole new existence.
   Reversed, however, could be interpreted by some readers as simply carelessness, apathy, indecision, and/or poor judgment.