LIFE'S OBSERVATIONS

David Mosdal Guest Columnist

Forever Young by Bob Dylan and the Band

May God bless and keep you always, May your wishes all come true May you always do for others, And let others do for you May you build a ladder to the stars, Climb on every rung And may you stay forever young. Our theme for this issue is Bob Dylan's Forever Young. Dylan's music has roots in the Folk Music of the late '50's and early '60's, but he really caught a toe hold in the evolution of the Folk-Rock music that shaped (and divided) a generation during the Vietnam Era. Forever Young was a lullaby written for Dylan's oldest son, who was seven years old in 1973. The first line is reminiscent of an Old Testament blessing, familiar to many. The next is a derivation of the Golden Rule, which is a cornerstone of all the world's major religions. The chorus ends with a lament and Dylan's implicit wish for something better for his son. My own father's concession to understanding the thoughts and struggles of his son was to install a radio in the cab of our International tractor. I could listen to the music and chatter of my youth and make up my own mind, while “working summer fallow” on our dry land Montana farm. As I look back, I have an even greater appreciation for what my “tractor seat time” taught me about work and life in general. Tending the summer fallow and keeping the weeds out was directly correlated to how next year's crop would fare. Do the work now and next year could be incrementally better but conversely, don't do it now and next year would be worse. So, I went around and around, day after day and thought about where my life might take me. It was akin to making sun tea in a gallon jar. You couldn't pick the moment when it was done, but it was ready when you were. Giving enough time to thinking about things has become increasingly important to me. I am concerned about the level of discord in our current political world so for some light summer reading I'm working my way through an English translation of Adolf Hitler's “Mein Kampf”. Our friend Patty operates the Bookmobile and she found it for me. She didn't even look over the tops of her glasses when I asked for it. Are there similarities in this book to our world today? Certainly. Young Adolph perfected the nastiness of name calling and denigrating everyone who isn't “one of us”. He capitalized on appealing to the firestorm of emotions we ALL came through in Jr. High. Those months, and maybe years of puberty were when we all felt picked on, we all thought we were singled out by our so-called friends and we all yearned for an advocate. Almost all of us quickly adapted the tools necessary to comfortably move on through life, but for some that sting of rejection can still be felt years later, whether real or imagined. It seems to me that the current trend in politics is to haul the junk out of our own musty, moldy basements and throw it on the neighbor's front porch. One political party is just as guilty as the other and it only leads to everyone having a smelly front porch. Fortunately, that's not really the kind of neighbors we aspire to be, so there must be a reasonable solution. Montana has been a State since 1889 and there have been a number of times when the voters here have shocked the Nation with our clarity of thought and conviction of purpose that is as clear as the Big Sky itself. Maybe it's time to set Washington on its ear once again with a refreshing approach to their stale old "lather, rinse, repeat" disfunctionality. Don't forget to vote in November!