I spent July 4 visiting my family at a nice, secluded spot up in Virginia. There was tubing, firearms, alcohol and fire works in a rock quarry. I managed to make a passable jumbalaya. It was extremely relaxing and much needed.
When I got back into town, I was thinking about posting Jimi Hendrix's stunning rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner," but it turns out that Mer over at Coilhouse already beat me to it with an excellent post on how America changed in 1969.
That got some of my own wheels turning. At its heart this is a nation founded by the people forced or kicked out of the rest of the world. That means dissidents, schemers, con artists, zealots, criminals, slaves, inventors, dreamers and the stark raving mad. That's the good news and the bad; it's why Leonard Cohen had our number when he dubbed the U.S. the "cradle of the best and of the worst."
This weekend my 95-year-old grandmother, as exuberant and ferocious as ever, told me she believed my generation is living through "big times," maybe more than those she'd seen.
My jaw hit the floor.
A lot has happened in the last decade: the first disputed presidential election in over a century, 9-11, the ruination of New Orleans, two wars, a historic election, massive financial collapse and massive changes in media and technology, just to name a few.
But still: measured against Prohibition, two World Wars or the 1960s, how significant are our own times?
I don't know. Many things only emerge as huge in retrospect -- in 1969, for example, both AIDS and Wal-Mart entered America -- or from a certain view, years down the road. We define what's gone before, almost as much as it defines us.
I believe we'll see years as momentous as 1969, if not more. We may already be in one. I hope, not just in America but everywhere, that for once we don't see history as ending, or as obsolete, but as both caution and inspiration. There's a lot to learn from 1969 -- and every other year gone by.
In closing, and in lieu of Hendrix, here's another favorite American icon of mine. Heed the words of Johnny Cash.
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