A Little Late to the Party
By pure chance, last night, I listened to Chris Martin cover the 1975 classic Bob Dylan song, “Shelter From the Storm.” The song with its cryptic lyrics is universally believed to be about the sadness of not knowing what you have until it’s gone.
Now there’s a wall between us, somethin’ there’s been lost
I took too much for granted, I got my signals crossed
Just to think that it all began on an uneventful morn
Come in, she said
I’ll give ya shelter from the storm
I was born in 1956, and I lived through some of the worst times in America’s long history. I was a teenager during the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the resignation of an American president in disgrace. Teenagers all over were taking the advice of Timothy Leary and “turning on, tuning in, and dropping out”. I breezed right through it.
I was raised in a very conservative Christian church with very talented leaders and wonderful people. I think one of their main goals was to keep all of the young people so busy with church activities that we wouldn’t notice all of the unrest around us. The world was spinning out of control and our church was like the moon, using its gravity to deflect astroids that might come our way. Several years ago a friend of mine listened to me describe my church schedule and all of the control and guilt they tried to place on us. He said, matter of factly, “You were in a cult.” I don't think it was a cult, but I think you could see it from where we were. I was once banned from the youth leadership council of the church for attending a “Carpenters” concert. Yes, that’s right, Karen and Richard Carpenter. You can’t make that stuff up.
I have had a wonderful life. I am sure that I was spared by my church from many bad things that could have damaged or ruined my life, but I am afraid that I also missed out on the opportunity to think for myself, observe the circumstances around me, and engage in the world. Why wasn’t I protesting the Vietnam War or working during my summers promoting the Civil Rights Movement?
My youth is long gone, and like Dylan, I lost things that I never knew I was losing. Singer, songwriter John Prine just passed away from complications of COVID 19. In one of his songs, “The Bottomless Lake,” he cheerfully writes, “We’re all falling down, down to the bottom of a hole in the ground; smoke em if you got em.” Amazingly, I have never smoked a cigarette or had a drink of alcohol or worn a black arm band to junior high to protest the Vietnam War. It may be that I am a little late to the party.
Phil, you're a sibling!. I was born, in 1948, to a fundamentalist Baptist milieu, and came of age in 1967, the so-called Summer of Love. Unlike you, I did rebel, but individually, not in league with the others of my age group. So I secretly smoked 'em if I had 'em (cigarettes, not pot) and in 1970 bailed on the church of my childhood (but not the church). Although I did not know it, God was there through every action as He is in all of us. So I launched my frail craft into the teeth of the storm of 1967 and never looked back. Doing so gave me experiential knowledge, bedrock knowledge, of God's love and God's presence in the craft regardless of what I thought was happening. I regret that there was so much I didn't know, back then. But, as Sonny loves to say, "I'm not dead yet." (This is usually when I'm glaring at him!) I'm not sure you're really late to the party. For some of us, it just took more time to become aware of the party.
ReplyDeletePhil -
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading your post! Turns out I'm just a couple of years older than you, and remember what things were like a half century ago. So many people today do not know or have chosen to forget how divided our country and people were during the 1950's and 60's. In some ways I believe we're still re-hashing most of that even today.
DKiely