I Love These Lyrics

We Shall Be Free

I was reading a post on EP yesterday and saw that someone had quoted a song lyric in a comment. It was just one line, but it was so familiar to me. Try as I might, however, I couldn't place the lyric. All I could come up with was that it was from some old country song my dad used to listen to a lot when I was really little. So I called him. Lol, that's right, I actually made a real old fashioned phone call because he refuses to respond to my text messages!

Anyway, he recognized the song immediately as "Standing Outside the Fire" by a singer named "Garth Brooks." He proceeded to quote the entire song lyric to me from memory and it is an awesome lyric. In fact, I had just decided to post it here as a story when he said, "But you know that wasn't your favorite Garth song, right?"

Huh??? I had a favorite Garth Brooks song? How could that be? I don't even know who the guy is anymore.

Well, in his badly out of tune voice, he started with, "This ain't comin' from no prophet..." and I instantly remembered the entire song and sang along with him right through to the end. It was simply amazing to me how just a couple of words instantly brought back this memory of dancing around the house singing along with my dad when I was four or five years old.

I shared that with him and he went on to explain that I didn't *just* like singing this song. Apparently I asked him questions about the lyrics...."What does it mean crying for a crust of bread dad?" .... "Why would someone die for just saying words dad?" ... and on and on. Being the dad that he has always been, he patiently sat through my questions and explained things like social justice in a way that a five year old could understand.

This topic is particularly relevant to me today because I've been deep in discussion with one of my very best EP friends on the topic of social justice and political philosophies. You see, I'm a free market capitalist .... a libertarian .... practically a freedom loving anarchist; and my friend is an admitted socialist .... a big government social engineer! (Before you get carried away, we have nothing but admiration, affection, and love for each other!)

We both seek a better tomorrow for all people, we just see a different path to that same end. And so, this story and this song are for my very dear (but socialist) friend!! Love ya!! 😉



Garth Brooks - We Shall Be Free


This ain't comin' from no prophet
Just an ordinary man
When I close my eyes I see
The way this world shall be
When we all walk hand in hand

When the last child cries for a crust of bread
When the last man dies for just words that he said
When there's shelter over the poorest head
We shall be free

When the last thing we notice is the color of skin
And the first thing we look for is the beauty within
When the skies and the oceans are clean again
Then we shall be free

We shall be free
We shall be free
Stand straight, walk proud
'Cause we shall be free
When we're free to love anyone we choose
When this world's big enough for all different views
When we all can worship from our own kind of pew
Then we shall be free
We shall be free

We shall be free
Have a little faith
Hold out
'Cause we shall be free

And when money talks for the very last time
And nobody walks a step behind
When there's only one race and that's mankind
Then we shall be free

We shall be free
We shall be free
Stand straight, walk proud, have a little faith, hold out
We shall be free

We shall be free
We shall be free
Stand straight, have a little faith

We shall be free

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