Free At Last

There is a quote from the Bible “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” that has stayed with me since my mother introduced it to me in my youth. I never really understood it, but it left an indelible impression on me. Then I heard Bob Marley sing “None but ourselves can free our minds”. I loved instantly the song, and the line stood out to me. But I still didn’t make the connection.

Now that I am a man with many life experiences under my belt, I am a firm believer in this principle. I’ve come across many different iterations of this idea in my life. From James Allen’s Classic book As A Man Thinketh to Bob Marley's song “Redemption Song” and even a quote ascribed to the Buddha “It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways” and many more. The idea that one’s reality is created by one's own mind has been discussed in cultures, religions and schools of thought as varied as Christianity and Buddhism; It's popped up everywhere from Hinduism to Stoicism; from antiquity to our modern era. It's an essential aspect of the human condition.

I've consciously grappled with my mind for most of my adult life. As a result, I have learned to live at peace with it. This "peace" or state of being is a hard-won truce from my many battles with my mind. It has informed my life tremendously since I happened upon it. This "peace" has infiltrated every aspect of my life including my music.

“Free At Last” is a song that encapsulates this realization as a Black man in America. For years, I felt trapped by a system designed to keep me a second-class citizen. Not realizing that second-class citizenship is a condition of my own mind, I accepted it as a concrete reality. I'm not saying systematic oppression doesn't exist, it definitely does. But how I respond to it determines how it affects me. That's what I didn't know at the time. I blamed the system, white people and everything else around me for the condition I found myself in.

Finally making peace with my mind, I realized that I had the power to rewrite the narrative I’d been rehearsing all those years. A narrative I didn’t author but thought was the only reality available to me. I’ve come to understand that my perception of a given condition dictates how I define said condition and whether I maneuver out of it or not.

Taking ownership of my own thinking has enabled me to author my mental narratives about life. It has given me the power to redefine the quality of my experiences. “Free At Last” is my declaration of freedom from the oppressive mindset I once held. It is a celebration of freedom using the “Black Experience” as a metaphor for an internal condition that has plagued humanity since the beginning of time.

Below, I've attached "Free At Last" for you to experience and celebrate your emancipation from your mental prison.

Enjoy,

Logan