Shakespeare’s Troilus stated the dilemma of desire with poetic concision: “The desire is boundless, but the act is a slave to limit.” Human desire is indeed boundless, and that is so deeply embedded in human existence that it is hard to imagine human beings otherwise. According to Troilus, this only means we are bound to be frustrated and dissatisfied. Boundless desire has to settle for limit in act, and that means that our freedom is resolved into slavery. The only real boundless is the inner boundlessness of aspiration, which can never be realized in action.
That is true unless boundless desire is directed, not only directed but bound, to some good that is boundlessly free. In a Christian framework, having a heart fixed on God is not enslaving but liberating because the heart given to God participates in God’s own freedom.
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