Listening to Joan Baez’s 75th birthday concert, singing “I am Just a Poor Boy” with Paul Simon, knowing of the tickets my son has for one of Elton John’s last concerts, I realize a whole generation of music is about to retire. So many have announced last tours, Simon among them, we may be left with only The Rolling Stones still gathering no moss.
My heart beats to the music of legendary musicians. I can still be moved to joy and tears by the ballads of resistence and hope and pain and peace. At least two generations have been born and grown since she first sang. The magic in the music has captured the hearts, minds, and imagination, of many of today’s youth.
In part, the music resonates because the battles have not been won. The struggles continue as though never fought. We must continue to work for the cause of the poor, of minorities, of the wounded and disabled, human rights, and groups still oppressed by ever new despots and tyrants. Since the first Earth Day in 1970 we still have a gravely endangered environment, perhaps in greater danger because what we have learned since is being ignored by those who reject science.
I echo what I’ve said here before; hadn’t we taken care of this in the 60s and 70s?
Old wounds are being opened; holocaust denial is spouted; our American Constitution is being used as a weapon…against children; dictators are snarking that “size matters”; and extreme evangelists are proclaiming nonsense, gleefully egged on by those in power.
I cling to the music. Although I will resist absurdity as loudly as I am able, I work hard to find peace in my heart and hope for our magnificent world.
I turn to nature, where life has only the choice to continue. And it does for the most part. We have brought many species to the edge of extinction, yet many persist. There is hope in what we observers anthropomorphize, but Nature pretty much ignores us and goes about its business. The natural world is too busy adjusting, adapting, and nurturing the fittest to be bothered by our fighting.
There will still be failures, but if we could only pause long enough to listen to the anthems ringing down the years, we might see how naive humans are about managing a world — our only one.
“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a small planet orbiting around a very average star. But we can understand the universe, and that makes us very special.” — Stephen Hawkings
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