Freedom of Choice

While waiting for the bus, I accidentally overheard someone on the phone.  It would have been impossible not to hear her as she was talking really loudly.  She was on the phone with her boyfriend trying to break up with him.  He had apparently been trying to get her to wear a hijab and live differently for him.  While on the phone I heard respond, "this isn't about being patient.  I'm just not that kind of girl."  At that point, I High 5'd her for sticking to her convictions and not giving in to what he wanted while disagreeing with her.  She is absolutely "that kind of girl."

Head-coverings, when they are chosen, are a form of freedom.  She is choosing not to wear a head-covering out of the same need for feel free as wearing one does for those who choose it.  When I chose to wear my kippah in public on a trial basis for two weeks, but the second day, I was okay with having made the lifelong decision that I have now committed myself to doing.  In some ways, it is difficult because, at the same time, I became an apostate to people by choosing to embrace this freedom that causes me to feel closer to God and freer than I ever had been before.  It changed the way that I understood the world and the way that the world understands me.  It is a decision that is definitely not accepted by a lot of people, and one that causes people to have to think about what think about it.  It wasn't an easy decision to make.  

What the young woman at the bus stop didn't understand was that she was choosing the same thing that other people choose: her freedom.  No!  She shouldn't be forced to wear a hijab for her boyfriend.  No one should be forced into a religious head-covering.  They have to be chosen.  I feel the same way towards a religious collar as she does about a hijab.  It's my freedom that would be taken away from me.  My freedom of choice has been expressed in another way and has brought my life in different directions.  

I am proud that she is choosing not to wear it.  I am proud that I chose my kippah.  I am proud of those who wear hijabs.  I am proud of those who don't wear kippah.  I am proud of those who find their religious freedom through choosing to follow how God shows them to live.