"Veronica Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho, in lucid and smooth prose relays how 4 characters of different shades of "apparent" insanity found sanity inside the mental asylum. They did because in the house for the mentally sick, they stumbled upon the freedom to be free. Their trek to freedom led them to the road to their cure and sanity. This newfound freedom led them all the way out into the road back to the world of the "normal" and discovered a way of life more normal than most "normal individuals observe: being free to be themselves -- free from unreasonably high expectations, unshackled from norms & conventions of a rigid family, community and society, released from traditions which serve only as a link to the past and meant to assure continuity, right or wrong, rational or not.
Corollarily, it recognizes our freedom to commit mistakes-- even a lot of them-- as long as they are not fatal enough to destroy ourselves....... & I dare say, destroy others.
And more. Freedom that liberates gives hope and regains it again and again. It gives rest. According to Thomas Aquinas, exhaustion & sorrow can be alleviated with sleep, bath and a glass of wine.
Freedom brings about creative balance between conflicting forces, wants, desires. It creates a system of priorities and releases you from the agony of paralyzing dilemmas .
Ultimately, freedom is right. It is to be free to do what is right, to exercise one's belief, to keep one's faith, to worship one's God and pursue ones ideals.
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