Set that Love Free is a song inspired by the ancient writing, Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), reflecting on the fleeting nature of reality. Kohelet was written thousands of years ago and is an ancient scroll in Ketuvim (The Writings), which is part of the Tanakh, Jewish scripture. It inspires readers, whether in the early Common Era or in the Postmodern Era, to reflect on the question of the meaning of existence. Living today in the overly digital, consumerist era of metamodernism, and reading this ancient text, I question what it means to heed this wisdom and live a life that truly keeps in mind our eventual death. Will our life and death be a gift to the ground? What is important for cultivating a meaningful, sincere, and honest life? Where are we? Us souls walking in the land of embodied existence… The song Set that Love Free is my own take on these questions, inviting myself and listeners to not get distracted by the superfluity of information coming at us all the time and instead ground ourselves in ourselves, heeding the guidance of ancient wisdom and the callings of our most sage inner voice. This song also sings into the realization that there is truly nothing we can hold onto - nothing is graspable, nothing is permanent - and that even love cannot be grasped, it must be set free.
From dust we come
and dust we’ll go
so don’t go collecting things
to fill your home
Only memories
will adorn your soul
the place we all go
Ain’t nothin’ to hold onto
Even the love you’ve got to set free
Ain’t nothin’ to hold onto
Even the love you’ve got to set free
So many people
and places and tasks
It’s all moving so fast
but just one question
you will be asked,
did you take the off mask
and let your soul sing free,
let your spirit flower,
so it can live and die in peace
Ain’t nothin’ to hold onto
Even the love you’ve got to set free
Ain’t nothin’ to hold onto
Even the love you’ve got to set free
War and divinity
Free will and destiny
We don’t got to get what it means
two sides, one Tree
Behold complexity
beyond our means
But it’s all holy,
holy, holy
Ain’t nothin’ to hold onto
Even the love you’ve got to set free
Ain’t nothin’ to hold onto
Even the love you’ve got to set free