Time off from work often helps people realize that there's no gift greater than freedom. Inconveniently, freedom can't be ordered on Amazon and shipped with free delivery, so it's not a popular gift.

This might seem surprising, given that America's national anthem calls us the "Land of the Free" -- a sentiment only slightly undercut by the fact that the country was not only founded by slaveholders but currently imprisons more of its own people than any other nation on earth. Still, it can't be denied that freedom is an American norm.

Of course, I mean Norm Rockwell, arguably the greatest American Norm. (The nod for Canadian Norm goes to Norm Macdonald.) Norman Rockwell painted classic Americana in a way that captured the hearts and minds of a nation, to the point where our understanding of classic American greatness often includes his work. When people talk about "the good old days" and have nostalgia for what America used to be, they often have Norman Rockwell's art in the back of their head. He spurred national pride by showing diner scenes and home life from the best damn country that never was -- or, at least, never was for everyone.

In 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave a State of the Union address where he identified four fundamental freedoms that people everywhere in the world should enjoy: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. In 1942, President Roosevelt issued an executive order forcing more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans into internment camps, many of whom were even born in America. (Possibly, he should have added a fifth freedom to his speech, freedom from unjust incarceration. Seems like an obvious oversight!)

But even if FDR was an imperfect messenger, his message of four freedoms resonated with Norman Rockwell, who in 1943 went on to paint a series of four oil paintings named The Four Freedoms. These paintings remain famous to this day, even with the younger generation (who admittedly might not have heard of Norman Rockwell, and just know the "Freedom of Speech" painting as "that meme guy who stands up with an opinion").

When it comes to the positive freedoms enshrined in our First Amendment -- freedom of speech and freedom of worship -- America has done a decent job. Not perfect. Obviously it's hard to claim no law respecting an establishment of religion when Christmas is a federal holiday and there is discussion of a "Muslim ban," and freedom of speech isn't best represented by an ever-increasing number of book bans as we attempt to prevent children from learning about different types of people. But all in all, we have mostly lived up to those ideals.

Not so much with the negative freedoms: freedom from want and freedom from fear. The idea of a right to economic security still hasn't quite caught hold, which is why in a nation of billionaires, the workers who keep it all moving can still barely afford to live. Some literally can't afford to live, thanks to a crushing for-profit health care system with bills high enough that it's a wonder we're still technically called a "developed" nation. Workers at Starbucks and Amazon have been on strike in hopes of better wages and working conditions -- another reason not to order freedom on Amazon this year.

Freedom from fear likewise isn't high on our priority list, with the specter of gun violence looming over every American, especially children who have to attend school in a nation where school shootings occur more often than Thursdays do.

Negative freedoms are complicated, especially when freedom from a constant fear of gun violence and ubiquitous oppressive security scans requires some restrictions on everyone's freedom to carry guns wherever they like. And likewise, some corporate regulation might be required to make freedom from want a reality.

But the first step is acknowledging the reality we already have. Norman Rockwell realized this when he painted "The Problem We All Live With," showing Ruby Bridges and the hard truth of the struggle for civil rights. Because even for the man who painted the ideal America, he knew that reaching that ideal America requires acknowledging where we are now. And that requires a dose of reality and self-reflection, a fine gift to get ourselves for the new year.

Just don't order it on Amazon.