Series overview:
Part 1: ieStory 26022 – Dependence
Part 2: ieStory 26023 – Responsibility
Part 3: ieStory 26024 – Dignity
You are sitting at the kitchen table again. Not out of habit, but because there is space there. Space to think, without it feeling like brooding.
It is not a special morning. The coffee tastes the same as always. Outside, a delivery van drives past. Nothing suggests that something fundamental has changed. And yet there is this sense that you are entering the day differently than before.
Not lighter.
But more upright.
Over the past weeks, you have questioned many things. First the dependence that became visible, even though it had always been there. Then the responsibility that was placed on you without letting you decide. And now you find yourself at a point you could not name for a long time.
Dignity.
Not as a grand word. But as something everyday, almost unspectacular.
A Different Way of Making Decisions
On your way to work, a message comes in. A request. Someone asks you to step in at short notice, to take something over, to carry responsibility. In the past, you would have almost automatically agreed. Not because you wanted to, but because it was expected of you.
Today you read the message twice. You think. You feel that you are allowed to decide.
And you say no.
Not with explanations. Not with apologies. But matter-of-factly. Because it is your decision and you can carry the consequences.
The no does not feel defiant. It feels calm. And for the first time you notice: dignity has nothing to do with volume.
When Mistakes No Longer Disempower You
A few days later, you make a mistake. Nothing dramatic, but enough to be noticeable. Something does not go as planned, a decision was not optimal.
You notice your old reflex surface briefly. The impulse to explain, to justify, to point to circumstances. But it stops.
Because this time there is no one you need to hide behind.
And no one you can point at.
It was your decision. And you know it.
You correct the mistake. You address it. You carry the consequences. Not out of duty, but because it feels right.
This is new.
Not pleasant.
But honest.
Security Is Not Dignity
You used to believe that dignity had something to do with security. With systems that catch you, regulate you, protect you. With rules that prevent you from falling too hard.
Today you see it differently.
These systems can protect you. Yes.
But they can also make you smaller.
Because they often take away exactly what makes dignity possible in the first place: real decision-making.
You now understand why so much felt empty before. Why responsibility without control was only pressure. Why protection without choice felt disempowering.
Dignity does not arise where everything is regulated.
It arises where you are trusted to act yourself – and to live with the consequences.
Ownership as an Inner Turning Point
This is not about ownership in the classic sense. Not about things. Not about wealth. It is about control. About the difference between “you may use this” and “this is yours.”
Where something truly belongs to you, your behaviour changes. Not because someone is watching, but because you take yourself seriously.
You approach decisions differently. You become more cautious, but not fearful. Clearer, but not harder. You do not act more perfectly – but more consciously.
And that is where dignity lies.
Freedom Is Not Comfortable
There are moments when you miss the old comfort. The hotline. The office that decides. The certainty that someone else is responsible.
But by now you know: that comfort came at a price. And the price was high.
Because freedom does not mean comfort. It means demand. It requires that you do not hide.
And still – or precisely because of that – you no longer want to trade it back.
The Circle Closes
When you look back, you recognise the path more clearly than while you were walking it.
First the dependence you barely noticed.
Then the responsibility demanded of you without allowing you to decide.
And now the dignity that was not given, but emerged.
Not through struggle.
Not through demands.
But through ownership in the deeper sense.
You understand what had long been wrong.
Not poverty.
Not inequality.
Not insecurity.
But a life in which you are allowed to use everything –
and truly own nothing.
The Final Point of the Series
And in the end, one thought remains. Quiet. Clear. Unavoidable.
Those who own nothing can have everything taken from them – even their dignity.
And those who are only allowed to use things will never truly be free.