After 71 years of hanging out in the 20th and 21st centuries, this boomer has seen and heard a lot about what life is what are we supposed to do with it.
Growing up in the age of television was strange enough; we saw Walter Cronkite take off his glasses before telling us that President Kennedy had just been killed in Dallas.
Then a half-dozen years later, Kennedy’s vision for a man on the moon was actualized.
Go figure. He had the vision to get the thing started, but was not here to appreciate the success of it.
But here’s the thing: The television age was strange enough as it was, but then along came the tech revolution, and suddenly we’re totally (or so it seems) immersed in all kinds of unprecedented media vibes.
So I was reflecting on some of these changes while doing a nostalgic music listening session, online; it was a good selection of great songs from back in the day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br1RW30L-WM&t=585s
Somewhere in there, early on, I heard CrosbyStillsNash&Young singing: “Teach your children well that parents’ hell will slowly go by.”
Maybe that’s what I'm attempting to do here. Here are a few gleanings from the music:
~ From Cat Stevens, “Father & Son,” referring to the future, “You may still be, but your dreams may not.”
~ From Simon & Garfunkel, “Sounds of Silence,” Silence like a cancer grows” . . . and "and the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made.” (My thought: now they ‘bow and pray,’ so to speak, to the wwWeb they've spun.)
~ From Don McLean, addressing, in his , song “Vincent” the artist Vincent Van Gogh, “They would not listen; they’re not listening, still; perhaps they never will.”
~ And we sha’nt forget to mention the observation of our boomer-age poet laureate, Broth’a Bob: “The Times They Are Changin’.”
~. . . as demonstrated by this line from Gordon Lightfoot, delivered through the the harmonic perfection of Peter, Paul and Mary, singing “Early Morning Rain”, to whit: "You can’t hop a jet plane like you can a freight train.”
~ But my main point here is delivered by Crosby, Stills and Nash in their “See the Changes”: . . .It gets harder as you get older, farther away as you get closer.”
What is “it”? that gets harder and farther away?
Brotha Steve Stills clarifies the dilemma, somewhat with his brief sharing of life experience:
“Ten years singing, right out loud. . . never knew was anybody list’nin’.
“Then I fell out of a cloud; I hit the ground and noticed something missing.”
What “cloud?” . . .,why, the cloud of fame and fortune, success in showbiz --all that whoopfizz woobee shoobee hipflip city stuff. But everything changes when the fabled, much-sought-after thing called “love” really happens. A lover, a potential mate, life partner, changes everything. . .
Steve continues his explanation: “Now I had someone; she had seen me changin’. And it gets harder as you get older, father away, as you get closer.”
What “it” gets farther away? while some other “it" gets closer?
I’ll leave it to you to figure out. As for me and my house, I put the the music/poetic striving and any potential success therein—left it on the back burner—when true love, and three young ‘uns and a family home changed everything.
For me, there came a time when I harkened to the voice of the ancient prophet, the“one crying in the wilderness” placing all those possibilities on the altar, if you know what I mean. But I still do “strengthen the things that remain.”
Y'all come back now.
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