The title refers to Bob Marley's “Redemption Song,” with its famous line, “emancipate yourself from mental slavery / none but ourselves can free our mind.” We know what physical slavery looks like, but mental slavery is slippery. It’s so easy to get swept into the river of the things we might worship—money, power, intelligence, beauty, a certain “right” way of being with no room for live-and-let-live. Even keeping up with the news. The real trick is to get ourselves free—none but ourselves can do it—without disengaging from the world and its eternal battle between light and darkness.

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