staying on the path

Generosity, charity, honesty. The sense he gave of staying on the path rather than being kept on it. — Marcus Aurelius

I love this quote from Marcus Aurelius in Book One of the Meditations talking about positive traits that the people in his life had. This quote was talking about Maximus.

To me this idea is about walking in a straight line. Do we choose to walk in a straight line or is someone forcing us to walk in a straight line by putting fences around us? Both outcomes are the same. We walked in a straight line. But the intentions are completely different. Are we holding ourselves to a high standard? Or are we being held to someone else's standard? Can we do right when no one is watching? Can we hold ourselves accountable?

Are we staying on the path or are we being kept on the path?

Freedom gives us choices. Constraints also give us freedom. We are free to stay on the path. We are free to stray from the path. When we are kept on the path, we lack freedom. We lack the freedom to make the wrong choice and therefore being kept on the path is not doing good. Reminds me of A Clockwork Orange. If you take away someone's free will to do evil, you also take away their choice to do good.

It is too easy to be kept on the path. We need a constant checking in with ourselves about what choices we are actively choosing versus things being decided for us. Every day we are going down paths. Which paths are you being kept on by some outside force?