Not a Bob Dylan Fan? OK, But What About Concern for the Survival of Our Species?
It’s Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday, and I’d like to mention that I’ve been a fan for more than 40 of those years.
On the way to a meeting with a 2GreenEnergy client this morning, I was listening to an interview with one of Dylan’s notable biographers, who, with the host, got into their favorite, most meaningful lyrics from his more-than-500 songs.
I was tempted to do the same here in this post — and trust me, I could make a considerable set of suggestions. But I’ll simply point out that poet Allen Ginsberg literally cried when he laid eyes on the lyrics to “It’s a Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,” shortly before the song was released in the mid-1960s, noting how Dylan had carried Ginsberg’s insights (and those of his contemporaries — the beat poets) along to a new generation who, he hoped, would share his concerns as to where we’re going as a civilization.
Though I’m sure some readers aren’t Dylan fans, I’d like to think we all share his concern for the survival of our species. In fact, I can’t image a reason that too many folks out there follow this blog other than an abiding belief that we need to work our way forward to a fairer and more sustainable society.
If you don’t feel like listening to Dylan sing (and didn’t click on the link above) here’s the last verse of “It’s a Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall.”
And what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son ?
And what’ll you do now my darling young one ?
I’m a-goin’ back out ‘fore the rain starts a-fallin’
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are a many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
But I’ll know my songs well before I start singin’
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
Are there any of us who think that our current approach to energy, or so many of our other major pursuits here on planet Earth, are sustainable? Don’t essentially all of us think a hard rain’s gonna fall?
As we approach the two-year mark since the inception of 2GreenEnergy, I want to thank the thousands of you who have added comments and occasional posts; we couldn’t have grown at this pace without you. And thanks to the rest, simply for being here.
