Fire

I was listening to a random station on Spotify today, and the song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” started playing. I noticed Spotify had a “Behind the Lyrics” that explained Billy Joel wrote this song in 1989 when he was 40 years old. At that time, he had a conversation with John Lennon’s son Sean who told Joel that 1989 was a terrible time to be a young person. Joel replied that the 1970s were not so easy, nor were the 60s, the 50s…. and on and on.

This song caught my attention today, as Estes Park, CO is starting to evacuate due to massive fires. California has been battling fires for what seems like forever. This year has been hard… We all collectively sigh… 2020 has sucked.

But history shows, life has always been hard. In the book “The Worst Hard Time” by Timothy Egan, it talks about “The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl.” The book floored me when it explained that many people during the depression had to eat pickled tumble weed. THAT was a difficult time. But look at the generation that survived the depression…. they are called the Greatest Generation!

So what will my boys generation do? In my heart of hearts, I have to believe they will be the next greatest generation. They are navigating virtual learning. Masked sports. A pandemic. Wild weather. Fires. The young generation is building strength and resilience that I pray will help them kindle an inner fire that will heal the world.