FREE ENOUGH TO LOVE

[Intro: quiet piano, distant heartbeat percussion]

Everybody wants a better world

The trouble starts

When we decide everybody else
Has to build it our way

[Verse 1]

I believe you own your conscience
I believe you own your name

I believe your life belongs to you
Not some politician’s claim

You can pray or you can question
You can wander, you can stay

You can build a different future
Than the one I’d choose today

I don’t have to understand you
To defend your right to be

Because freedom isn’t freedom
If it only looks like me

[Beat enters]

And I’ve heard a thousand speeches
About enemies and sides

But fear has built more prisons
Than compassion ever tried

[Pre-Chorus]

So before we write another law
To make the whole world right

Maybe we should learn
To live beside each other first tonight

[Chorus]

I want a world free enough to love

Free enough to disagree

Free enough to build a life
You never have to justify to me

Let people move
Let people speak

Let people trade
Let people dream

And when we’re scared of one another
Let’s not hand somebody power in between

I want liberty with open arms

Not another iron glove

I want a world that needs less force

Because we’re free enough to love

[Verse 2]

Every ban begins with someone
Saying, “This will keep you safe”

Then demand goes underground
And danger gladly takes its place

Build a wall around a problem
Watch the problem find a door

You can outlaw every symptom
Without knowing what it’s for

And a thousand miles from Washington
Someone knows what they require

Better than a room of strangers
Drawing maps beside a fire

Prices carry little messages
No ministry can see

Millions making tiny choices

That become an economy

[Pre-Chorus]

No one holds the whole equation

No one sees the whole terrain

So I’m careful with the people
Who say they should run the game

[Chorus]

I want a world free enough to love

Free enough to disagree

Free enough to build a life
You never have to justify to me

Let people move
Let people speak

Let people trade
Let people dream

And when we’re scared of one another
Let’s not hand somebody power in between

I want liberty with open arms

Not another iron glove

I want a world that needs less force

Because we’re free enough to love

[Bridge: beat drops, intimate vocal]

But freedom isn’t isolation

And compassion isn’t law

There are people who need neighbors
When their whole damn world has fallen off

There are children who need mentors

There are strangers who need hands

There are problems no amendment
Ever taught us how to understand

Community is not coercion

Kindness doesn’t need command

You can catch somebody falling
Without chaining where they stand

[Build]

Maybe if we knew each other

Maybe if we broke some bread

Maybe fewer frightened people
Would demand more walls instead

Maybe every act of mercy

Every friendship across lines

Makes another little argument

For leaving force behind

[Verse 3: stronger beat]

Let the immigrant seek tomorrow

Let the worker name their price

Let the builder build more houses

Let the dreamer roll the dice

Let the speaker say what bothers you

Then answer with your own

Let consenting people make a life

The state does not need to own

And when somebody causes damage

Liberty still has a line

Your freedom ends where you can force
The cost of yours onto mine

No kings
No saints
No perfect plans

No party gets my soul

Just people making choices

And accepting what they owe

[Breakdown]

Left says
“Give us power
We will use it for the good”

Right says
“Give us power
We will use it like we should”

I’ve read enough of history

To know how that one goes

Power always finds a reason

Why it cannot let you go

[Beat returns]

So no

I’m not asking for a ruler
Who agrees with me today

Because tomorrow someone different
Gets the very same machinery

I would rather build a culture

Where we rarely need the key

Than spend every generation

Fighting who controls captivity

[Final Chorus: huge]

I want a world free enough to love!

Free enough to disagree!

Where your life is yours
And mine is mine

And both can still meet peacefully

Let people move!

Let people speak!

Let people trade!

Let people dream!

Build a thousand different futures

Let no one demand they all agree

[Choir]

FREE ENOUGH TO LOVE!

[Lead]

Give me pluralism over purity

Forgiveness over spite

Give me neighbors who can argue

Then still share a drink at night

Give me markets
Give me charity

Give me families
Give me friends

Give me every voluntary way

That human beings make amends

[Key Change]

Because the smallest government

Starts somewhere deeper than a vote

It starts when fear no longer has

Its fingers wrapped around our throats

When disagreement isn’t hatred

When difference isn’t war

When helping someone doesn’t mean

We have to own them anymore

[Final Build]

I want liberty

Not loneliness

Responsibility

Not control

Individual lives

In communities