How Badly Do You Want To Be Free?

Recently watched Walk the Line again, a movie about the life of Johnny Cash up thru his marriage to June Carter. Here is a man who knew well the gritty side of life. Hard times in his childhood, with deep wounds. And hard times from bad choices as he wrestled with personal demons. Yet out of this inner turbulence there came some powerful songs and by the grace of God he became a survivor.

These past few days I’ve been driving my mom from her winter home in Tampa back to Pennsylvania. I often sing to myself to pass the time as we rack up the miles. Yesterday some Johnny Cash songs came up on the mental dial, and this one, San Quentin, really hit me.

I remember several decades ago hearing a song about our personal prisons which we make with our own hands, the consequences of our own choices. The prison was a metaphor for everything that snares.

While singing San Quentin these old thoughts rose up and I saw the song as an anthem, a starting point for liberation from addictions. Perhaps many of our problems stem from a lack of real motivation to change. We lack the willpower, the drive, the determination. Instead we make a mild effort and then lean back against the wall with a shrug.

It’s not until we have an abject hatred of our prisons, whether habits or addictions, that we will do what it takes, whatever it takes, to find freedom. Johnny Cash sang,

San Quentin, you've been livin' hell to me
You've hosted me since nineteen sixty three
I've seen 'em come and go and I've seen them die
And long ago I stopped askin' why

San Quentin, I hate every inch of you.
You've cut me and have scarred me thru an' thru.

Until we absolutely hate our prisons, we’ll just reside there making the best of it. That’s why movies like Cool Hand Luke, Runaway Train and Shawshank Redemption have such power. At the center of each story is an existential hero who will not submit to his fate. He is committed to one aim: freedom. “San Quentin, you've been livin' hell to me,” Johnny Cash wrote. What is it that is living hell for you? Maybe it’s time to do something about it.

If your problem is an addiction and your will power feels like wet toilet paper, you might find help through True You Recovery.




Don’t let your prison keep you from your dreams.