Within the last week, David Bowie, Alan Rickman and now Glenn Frey have all passed away. Baby boomers are devastated. We grew up watching and listening to these men. They mark a time in our lives when we were young and vital and thought we would live forever.
Each of these men were in their late 60s, but I’ve heard so many remarks about how young they were and how they’re gone too soon. Why the outpouring for men we really didn’t know, that very few of us ever met or would have ever met?
These people from our childhood and teen ears represent our youth. We still listen to their music, watch their films and it takes us back. When I listen to Bowie, I’m transported back to elementary school when I first heard Space Oddity. When I hear Take It To the Limit I think of junior high days. We feel we can stay forever young listening when we enjoy their work. Even seeing them in concert at their advancing ages is a sip from the fountain of youth. But when one of them passes, a piece of us dies with them. I realized today I missed that Eagles concert in Dayton and now that is an opportunity I will never have again. When they pass not only does a small part of us go with them, we are brought to the stark reality that one day a big part of us, the entirety of us, will join them. And for many of us still in denial about the loss of our youth and our own mortality it’s an unwelcome about the fate that awaits us all no matter how rich, famous or successful.
Buckle up my fellow baby boomers, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, EW&F, all of them are getting older. 2016 is off to a rough start. Jeff Lynne (Electric Light Orchestra) just released another album. I’m glad to have it. It’s nice to hear a little more of that ELO sound all these years later. It’s great to live in a time that once a work is released we have it forever.
I saw a meme the other day that said something to the effect of instead of mourning the passing of Bowie, we should be grateful that in the billions of years history of this planet, we should be grateful we shared the planet with him at the time he was here. I like that perspective. We have shared the ride with some greats.
