Beyond all personal circumstances, beyond all social structures, beyond the politics of the day, beyond the hysteria of the media, only one thing is real: your heart wants to be free. Artists taste this freedom, because they experience it in their art, but we can, as a culture, as empowered individuals claim this freedom today.

How do I know this? Because I see it in my fellow artists work; I hear echos of that freedom in the lyrics of the music I hear. I know it because personal freedom is the touchstone of my work, because the very wind whispers of it to me.

Belong by R.E.M.

(Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe)

Her world collapsed early Sunday morning
She got up from the kitchen table
Folded the newspaper and silenced the radio
Those creatures jumped the barricades
And have headed for the sea, sea

Those creatures jumped the barricades
And have headed for the sea
She began to breathe
To breathe at the thought of such freedom
Stood and whispered to her child: belong
She held the child and whispered
With calm, calm: belong

Stood and whispered to her child; belong
She held the child and whispered
With calm, calm: belong

These barricades can only hold for so long
Her world collapsed early Sunday morning
She took the child held tight
Opened the window
A breath, this song, how long
And knew, knew: belong