Redemption is a word that has been on my lips for months now. Singing Bob Marley's Redemption Song has been SUCH a comfort to me. It came into my mind early in the spring lockdown and I just couldn't play or sing it enough. In our solitude, my guy and I would jam on it together in my little Jersey City apartment. No matter how rough it got, we would find the fortitude we needed in that Redemption song; in those lyrics especially.

It's only now that I am finally in a place to better understand it’s power and share it with others through this impromptu video we did from one of our jam sessions.

I just learned this was Bob Marley's last song, on his last album. He performed it solo with only acoustic guitar; totally stripped of that classic Whailers’ sound. It makes his message stand out all the more. And what is that message? What does Redemption mean? It's hard to put into words.

Listen to it. Sing it loud, and with your truest voice. And see what it says to you.

https://youtu.be/LFbfcYWes10

It's defined officially as being delivered from sin, error and evil. But for many of us, the religious overtones are a turn off. And there's a huge difference in error and evil, so this definition doesn’t help that much. But when Bob Marley sings of it, he returns the true power to that word which is beyond all definition.

“Oh Pirates yes they Rob I

Sold I to the Merchant Ships

Minutes after they took I

From the bottomless Pit”

Most of us feel chained to our past for all eternity! Most of us walk around with a list of reasons why we are totally irredeemable, even if it sits in the back of our mind. Our shame and anger grows exponentially when we look at our collective past of slavery and institutionalized hatred. We can't deny our past mistakes, but how do we transcend them? How do we redeem ourselves from it when it's just so easy to fall into a mindset of guilt that merely perpetuates the cycles we are caught in. The more we hate ourselves and others, the more disempowered we become to make any real and lasting change. And the cycles of domination and slavery continue on and on. And on.

Have you heard the rumors about foul play in Bob Marley's death? He died from a rare and fast acting melanoma that is not common in dark skin. Just before his big Smile Concert in 1976, there was an attempt on his life (and his family) that can not be disputed. Bob Marley went ahead with the concert being quoted as saying, “"The people who are trying to make this world worse aren't taking a day off. How can I?"

But the plot thickens as 5 months after the concert, he was diagnosed with this rare melanoma in his toe. The story goes - he received a pair of boots from the son of CIA Agent Oxley, who posed as an adoring photographer at that very Smile Concert itself. Inside the boots was a copper prick that caused a wound on the very toe that was later diagnosed with this crazy cancer. It spread fast to his whole body. For truth seekers, check out more on this from Music Researcher Mark Devlin and see for yourself the validity of these assertions.

I can not verify this story personally. But I can say that Bob Marley's One Love vibe is the exact type of unifying message that threatens these dying institutionalized slave systems. These very systems desperately need our division to function.

Whether this story of Bob's history is true or not, we do seem to live in a fallen world where our prophets are killed. Jesus is such an example. If someone comes into this world with a unifying message + the power to spread this message – bam! They seem to meet an untimely death. In Redemption song, Bob Marley sings of this...

“How Long Will they Kill our Prophets,

While we stand aside and look”

Bob wrote this song while the fatal cancer spread in him. Was he singing about himself? Hard to say, but it certainly makes his message more potent to realize that he wrote a song of such hope, in the throws of his own demise.

I didn't realize understand this when I sang my version. I changed the lyrics to ..

“How long will they steal our profits, while we stand aside and look”

This small change came because I misunderstood the lyrics (and because I often change lyrics of covers to make them more personal to me). In the midst of the Corona Virus lockdowns, this seemed to be the reality of our lives today. Even before this pandemic, I've seen our so called 'free market system' rigged against honest, hardworking small businesses and individuals. Especially since 2001, I've watched the people I love and respect work harder and harder just to survive. And we've all seen an elite class grow wealthier and wealthier off the backs of the working class. It no longer matters what color your skin is, many of us are enslaved through our economic system.

A profound corruption has spread through humanity like Bob's cancer and no one knows how to fix it. Or even how deep it goes. If you've woken up to this, if you've woken up to how you are participating in the depravity, what hope have you got but to pray for Redemption? The lies we are all immersed in from birth are so engrained that it threatens our very sanity to face the truth. We run from it like a mole runs from the light, having spent it's whole life in darkness.

I believe that Bob Marley was and is truly uniting people through his music. It wasn't about the color of skin. It was about their right as a child of God to be loved and cherished. It’s about facing our corruption so that we can live in a better world. I’ve heard this was what he was promoting through the Smile Concert of ‘76. Even in his darkest hour, even as he faced the end of his life, he sang of being redeemed by the Hand of the Almighty.

“But my hands were made strong

by the Hand of the Almighty

We forward in this generation

Triumphantly “

And he uses his last breath lyrically to reassure us that we will be triumphant. His words echo louder than ever as we face the great awakening that his generation started. He seemed to know we will be triumphant even if we set our sights on redemption. That's all he ever had. And looking to his example, that's more than enough. It spreads like wildfire to those who need encouragement to make the changes in their own life that will ripple out to the greater whole.

“Emancipate yourself from mental Slavery

None but ourselves can free our minds”

For me it's an everyday awareness. It's a vigilance to choose again. To choose love. To use faith to navigate through the fear response. And when we mess up, and fall into fear again (and again), just let it go and forgive, as soon as possible. This is how we can come to know true freedom. This is how we can walk away from our mistakes and change humanity’s collective momentum. We can create a world where we are truly free to live in peace and love.

I'm home now, in the home I grew up in. And I don't want to share all my pain here in this blog, though it's here with me as I write this. All the truth of our family faults are right, smack-dab in my face; the ways we got it so wrong. Mainly, we cared more about this fallen world than loving each other. Or rather, we were caught and trapped by worldly illusions.

But the love was so real. And it's here in this house - years and years of hidden love. And now I'm tasked with caring for my father and clearing out the junk stored here. There's just so much of it and it's like why? What has any of this been for? We were and perhaps still are lost. But I know now we are not alone. We have all the help we need to learn to love each other, as best we can. And we can clear out the old junk to make room for more love to come.

It's a daily practice. It's a daily commitment to do the work in whatever way our lives present. It can be a lonely journey, the way of the redeemed. But look at the help we have when we choose love instead of fear. This song was written for us; those who care to know a redeemed life and free future generations from the chains of guilt. Bob Marley was singing to us. How beautiful! How amazing! Time itself is no obstacle to the greatest power in the universe - love.

Bob also reminds us that even the technological and environmental threats we are facing are nothing in face of our true cosmic power.

“Have no fear of atomic energy

cause none of them can stop the time”

It is a choice. Free yourself from the shame of our past. And choose again. Take up the responsibility to free this world through your own personal integrity; through your own personal choices.

One by one, but connected completely, let love redeem us. Let God redeem every part of this fallen world. Cause none of us are perfect. None of us are free from error. But together we can course correct. And we can sing together a song of Redemption that future generations will thank us for.

“Won't you help to sing, these songs of Freedom

Cause All I ever had, Redemption song, Redemption Song”

- the late, great Bob Marley