On Gonzo’s Pond: Grokking FreedomBy Luis Gonzalez ·
A reflective trilogy from Gonzo’s Pond
“To grok is to understand so completely that you become one with what you know.” — Robert A. Heinlein
Part I — Grokking FreedomThe pond woke before I did. A thin fog hovered over its surface, breathing slowly, as if the earth itself were trying to remember something. The water held its mirror still — no judgment, no hesitation — just reflection.
I thought of Charlie Kirk and Valentine Michael Smith again, their names drifting through my mind like lily pads that never touch. One real, one imagined, both stirring the same unsettled waters of belief.
Heinlein’s Martian word comes to me: grok.
To grok is not to think, but to become the thing known — to know water by being water, to know love by dissolving in it.
Smith grokked humanity through its pain and contradictions, learning that freedom was not permission but presence.
And maybe Kirk, in his own combustible way, grokked something too — the dangerous beauty of freedom itself.
https://boilingfrogs.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/the-gonzos-pond-cycle-grokking-freedom/
