“ In our limitless selfishness, we have tried to define “freedom,” for example, as an escape from all restraint. But, as my friend Bert Hornback has explained in his book The Wisdom in Words, “free” is etymologically related to “friend.” These words come from the same Indo-European root, which carries the sense of “dear” or “beloved.” We set our friends free by our love for them, with the implied restraints of faithfulness or loyalty. And this suggests that our “identity” is located not in the impulse of selfhood but in deliberately maintained connections.
Faustian economics: Hell hath no limits—By Wendell Berry (Harper’s Magazine)
I have a love hate relationship with people who use etymology in their arguments — it often feels like a “look, I’m good at words, you should believe my logic” play, using poetry in place of argument. The words are indeed pretty, though.
